An Aftertale
by annabean139
Summary: This is a story about the aftermath of the true pacifist ending of Undertale. The story follows Frisk and their journey through new, and uncertain times. Can monsters really co-exist with humans? Can the past be forgotten? Can they stay determined? We'll just have to wait and see... I would love some honest feedback!
1. Chapter 1

****Update: the story** **doesn't get good until around the 6th chapter, but the first few chapters are crucial to the story. Please stick** **through to the end. I promise it'll be worth it.****

This is the story taken after the events of undertale. The story starts off with the ending scene of the game.

Rated T for mature audiences as there will be swearing, violence, and other themes.

 **Chapter 1**

The sun feels warm on Frisk's face. It has been so long since they've felt its warm, radiant rays.

"Oh my," Toriel was at a loss for words.

"Isn't it beautiful?"

"Wow. I, its even better than on T.V. WAY better!" Alphys exclaimed.

"Frisk you LIVE in this?!"

*Frisk nods*

"HEY SANS, WHATS THAT BIG BALL OF LIGHT?" Papyrus asked slightly confused.

"Its the sun, bro." Sans answered, slightly amused at his brothers ignorance.

"THATS THE SUN? WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE IM FINALLY MEETING THE SUN!"

"It is really beautiful but we should really think about what happens next."

Toriel finally got the group moving. everyone left to start creating their new life and tying up loose ends.

"Now Frisk," Toriel started, "Im sure you have a family to return to and places to be..."

"I want to stay with you, Mom!" Frisk interrupted.

"Well, I. Oh you really are a funny child!" Toriel stammered.

She lifted frisk into a huge bear hug. they honestly thought they were going to be turned into dust.

"Well my child, we better go start our new life."


	2. Chapter 2

Frisk and Toriel went down the mountain path after the others. the pines swayed gently in the early spring breeze and the temperature cooled with the come of evening. Frisk started to get cold. They didn't pack anything and desperately wanted a heavy coat.

"T... t... toriel!" Frisk mumbled between shivers. "Im... Im c.. cold."

"Oh dear! I didn't realize you didn't have a coat."

Toriel picked them upend carried Frisk the rest of the way

Toriel carried frisk all the way down the mountain until they came across where everyone had set up camp for the night. The camp consisted of 7 tents, a campfire, and a makeshift kitchen where Papyrus and Undyne were trying their best to make spaghetti. All of the monsters were sitting on logs around the campfire.

'HELLO HUMAN! YOU LOOK POSITIVELY FAMISHED. GOOD THING THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS MADE SOME OF HIS FAMOUS SPAGHETTI!" Papyrus said while heaping a monstrous amount onto a plate. He handed a plate to Frisk and one to Toriel.

The spaghetti was terrible. It was only half cooked and cold in some spots despite it being made over an open fire. It looked worse then it tasted. But, Frisk was almost used to eating Papyrus's terrible cooking on a semi regular basis, so it wasn't impossible to choke down. Everyone else was having a hard time eating with a straight face.

"HOW IS IT?!" Papyrus asked the crowd of disgusted monsters.

"I think i'll stick to ketchup" Sans stated while chugging half a bottle he brought from Grilby's.

"Its, uhhh, not quite my taste Papyrus." Toriel tried to say as nicely as possible.

"WELL I DID THE BEST WITH WAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAD AT HIS DISPOSAL" Papyrus said slightly hurt.

Frisk never liked to see their friends hurt, even if it meant telling a few little white lies.

"I think it's okay Papyrus." Frisk said, trying to make the tall monster feel better.

"WELL AT LEAST SOMEONE APPRECIATES MY COOKING." Papyrus said feeling a little better.

The monsters discussed plans for the new world. Were they going to make homes close to the mountain top or if they're going to travel to a human city. Stuff like that. Frisk enjoyed every word of it. eventually the flames of the campfire started to die down and the moon was getting high in the sky. They wanted to stay up longer to hear the plans on how they'd get Alphys lab onto the surface, but Toriel decided it was time for Frisk to get to bed.

"Its time for bed Frisk. Do you want me to tuck you in?" Toriel asked.

"Uh, if you wouldn't mind Tori, I think I'd like to tuck in the kid." Sans suggested getting up from his place across the campfire.

This surprised Frisk. They weren't all that close and Sans almost seemed scared of them half of the time. But they did want to get tucked in that night.

"Oh, very well. Sweet dreams."

"SWEET DREAMS" all of the other monsters said in unison.

As Sans lead Frisk towards their tent, they could tell something was a little off about him. He didn't make eye contact the entire walk over to their tent and he seemed tense. The tent itself was nice. Roomy with a little blue sleeping bed and a floppy grey pillow. Despite it being so cold outside, it felt oddly warm inside.

Frisk climbed into the sleeping bag and pulled the rim of the blanket up to their chin.

"Hey kid. What you did back there was pretty brave. Selfless even. Don't mess this ti-"

Sans cut off. it seemed as if he was rethinking about what he was going to say. He noticed the confused and slightly worried look on Frisk's face and sighed.

"Thanks for making Papyrus feel better, it means a lot. I bet if you go to sleep soon you'll sleep like the DEAD."

*giggles*

"Heh. Goodnight kid."

Soon afterwards Frisk feel into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Frisk woke up on a bed of flowers.

Everything was dark. The light coming from the over world was the only thing illuminating the room. The ruins weren't as they usually are, instead they were in the judgement hall. It was dark and cold.

Suddenly the warm yellow flowers wilted underneath Frisk and turned into shriveled husks in a matter of seconds. Frisk stood up in a start. They wondered how they got there and why everything felt weird. It was as if everything was to the left about 1/2 an inch. the same, but off. The floor started to crumble underneath Frisk's feet. They started to run. Everything around them started to crumble. The floor, the walls. The room was falling apart faster, and faster. Frisk was running as fast as they could. They saw the elevator at the end of the room and broke out in a sprint. They were almost there, but the ground suddenly crumbled infront of Frisk and the ground gave way.

Frisk was falling down a seemingly bottomless pit. There was no light and no sign of the bottom. The sound of air rushing all around them was overwhelming. Frisk was terrified. They couldn't tell weather they were falling upside down, sideways or rightside up. They couldn't even tell if they were falling or not. The darkness almost seemed to be engulfing Frisk into an endless emptiness.

Frisk was terrified. They were happy and didn't need to come back down into the underground. Everyone they loved was on the surface. What did they do to get down here?

"You really don't remember. do you?"

Frisk was confused and scared. They'd never heard this voice before, but it was slightly familiar. The voice was twisted and evil. It was hard to listen to without crying. it spoke in a harsh, dry whisper.

"Wh.. Who are you?" Frisk asked terrified.

"Why, I'm you of course."

"I don't understand." Frisk was on the edge of crying. They couldn't help but feel guilty for something. But what? They couldn't remember.

"Why of course. You forget what you don't want to remember. But guess what? Im going to MAKE you remember."

"I don't understand!" Frisk was sobbing now. They were unable to mask their fear and confusion.

"Im not coming back. But you will remember. You will pay for your sins and you will never forget me again."

It was silent. The only thing you could hear was Frisk's sobs echoing in the dark.


	4. Chapter 4

Frisk woke up in a cold sweat in their sleeping bag. it was about 7:00 in the morning. The ground was half frozen, extremely cold, and wet. Frisk got up and laced up their black shoes and went outside to start the day.

Not everyone was awake yet. Undyne was chopping firewood at the back of the camp close to the make shift kitchen. Alphys was sitting by the fire on a log. She was looking a little uncomfortable sitting on the cold, damp log, but she seemed to be more worried about what she was scribbling on her notepad. Not that Frisk could read it if they tried. Toriel was looking chipper as ever. Mom goat was making pancakes and trying to ignore Asgore who was trying his best to start a conversation with his ex-wife.

Frisk made their way to the campfire. They were hungry and wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone just yet, but Asgore saw them as a perfect way to get Toriel to listen to him. He was just about to hug Frisk when Undyne dropped at least twenty chair sized logs onto the fire. The fire roared to the size of a house within a matter of seconds.

Alphys leaped back as her sitting log was engulfed into the flames. Toriel's pancakes burned and Asgore's pants were burned into crisps.

"Well isn't that a great way to start out the morning." Undyne said, proud of her handiwork.

"Um, Undyne, don't you think we could've saved those logs for another fire?" Asked Alphys still jumpy from her near death encounter.

"Pshaw. I could cut forty more of those in two minutes if i wanted to." Undyne brushed the whole thing off as if it wasn't a big deal.

The huge fire did make it ten times faster to cook pancakes. They had a huge stack by the time everyone woke up. Well, almost everyone.

Papyrus went to Sans's tent to try and get him out of bed. The spring day had become quite warm and pleasant, and Papyrus wanted his brother to enjoy every second of it.

"BROTHER! YOU LAZY BONES. GET UP!"

"Not now Pap, ten more minutes." Sans said, obviously exhausted.

"BROTHER I WILL NOT LET YOU WASTE THIS BEAUTIFUL DAY! YOU CANT SLEEP FOREVER. GET UP!"

"Papyru-"

Sans was cut off. Papyrus lifted Sans out his sleeping bag and carried him to the fire. Papyrus was fairly sure that if he set Sans down he would lie down on the wet ground and sleep for the rest of the day, so Papyrus held Sans under his arm and gave him his plate of pancakes and sat down. He refused to let him go. Sans wasn't very happy, but he knew that he wasn't getting put down until he ate all of his pancakes. It was quite a funny sight to see.

"Papyrus I'm done. You can put me down now."

"DO YOU PROMISE YOU WONT FALL ASLEEP AGAIN?"

"I wouldn't want TIBIA lazy bones." Sans said with a shit-faced grin.

"OH MY GOD SANS YOU REALLY ARE AN A-"

"PAPYRUS! There's a _child_ beside you." Toriel said mildly horrified.

"OH I AM SO SORRY! I DIDNT SEE YOU THERE HUMAN." Papyrus said. His face was almost the colour of a tomato.

Frisk laughed uncontrollably. They needed a tension break from the crazy dream they had and it felt good to release all of the pent up emotions. Sans's jokes always made them laugh.

After breakfast the monsters broke camp. Everyone was assigned to carry something. Undyne carried the pots, pans and _all_ of the firewood she cut that morning, Alphys carried all of the plans and notebooks in a sophisticated looking backpack, Ashore carried the tents and the groups only shovel, Toriel carried all the food, and Papyrus carried Sans and Frisk.

Everyone was ready to reach civilization. Their new life awaited only a few kilometres away.


	5. Chapter 5

***Authors note***

 **-From now on the story will be from Frisk's perspective and not from a 3rd person. speech that isn't in quotations is only thoughts.-**

The walk from Mnt. Ebott to the closest village was only about a days hike. It was so fun having Papyrus carry me on his shoulders that i didn't mind that my butt was getting sore. Papyrus carried sans in his arms. Sometimes I wonder how he could be so lazy. It always seemed like he was hiding something. By mid day we were approaching Charleston.

 **"** Stop!" I shouted. everyone looked at me like i was a lunatic, but I needed to prepare them for what was ahead. "You guys need to listen to me before you get your hopes up."

"C'mon kid. We're soo close to seeing all the other twerps." Undyne said anxious to meet the other people.

"Undyne, I think you mean other humans." said Alphys.

"Yeah I forgot" said Undyne sarcastically.

"I THINK WE SHOULD LISTEN TO THE HUMAN. THEY KNOW THEIR OWN KIND BETTER THAN WE DO."

I knew Papyrus would have my back. He always does, but i don't think he'll like the news I was about to tell them all.

"The other humans aren't as nice as I am."

"Whats that supposed to mean?" asked Undyne.

"They don't accept what they don't understand."

"Well I think we have to give them a chance. The monster war was so long ago, maybe we can put it all behind us." Toriel said a little too eagerly.

I love my goat mom, but sometimes she has a bigger heart then whats good for her. You see, the monster war is nothing but a myth. A ghost story that people say to keep people away from the mountain. After the monster were sealed inside it was used as a toxic waste dump, then it was used as a nuclear testing sight, and then it was used as a regular garbage dump. The place was a mess, but now the mountain has mostly been reclaimed by nature. That doesn't stop the stigma around it though. For a while when i was little there was a camp sight in the woods close to the mountain. When a whole bunch of kids started to disappear the place was closed down and condemned. Everyone hated Mnt. Ebott and anything in it.

"I guess we'll just take it as it comes, kiddo." Sans said sleepily.

Everyone agreed. I may have put a damper on their spirit but they were still excited. We entered Charleston at around three o'clock. I decided to go first so it wouldn't look as if i was with them anymore. I loved them, but I knew how it would look if a kid was walking with a bunch of monsters. I didn't want to cause a panic. As we entered the village everyone just stopped and stared. They walked straight down the middle of the road trying to follow me. I lead them as best as I could to the mayor's office and left.

I went back to see my parents. I hated them, but they deserved to know I was alive. They didn't really care about me all that much. I was the second youngest of eleven. My siblings favourite thing to do was to beat me up and call me names. Sometimes they would lock me in the hall closet and forget about me. i was in there for three days once. Not the best time to say the least. I was let out when my dad needed a new towel and found me in there, almost starved to death. My parents weren't much better. My mom was an alcoholic. Half the time she was passed out on the couch and the other half she was trying her best to clean and shouting that she does everything in this house and no one ever helps her do anything. You know, stuff like that. My dad was never home. He worked a crappy office job and took every shift he could just to try to make ends meet. There was never enough money.

When i came through the door i was greeted with a nice warm "Hey. They're not dead." by my big sister.

"You can't be here!" shouted my mother.

She had a look of absolute rage, scary enough to make a baby cry. Her eyes were blood shot, her hands were trembling, and her face was twisted into into a nasty snarl.

"If you're alive we're going to have to give back your life insurance. We can play bills now that you're dead. So unless you want to actually be dead YOU'RE GOING TO GET OUT AND NEVER LOOK BACK."

And i almost did. But i wanted to get a few of my things first. I went passed my mother and into my room. She chased after me, down the hall and almost made it into my room, but i was too quick. I managed to lock the door before she could kill me.

My room was pink with water stains on the wall and ceiling, and a high, small window, but it was mine. I got it after a social worker made my parents make a few changes or else they would take me away. I dragged my old, yellow duffle bag out from under my bed and started to pack. I grabbed two sweaters out of my closet. They were the exact same as the one I had on. I also grabbed my only pair of jeans, two pairs of sweat pants, three pairs of shorts, and four t-shirts. They were green and blue. I took a look around my room. I didn't have very many of my own things. A broken bat, a few photos, half a box of crayons. I grabbed a family photo but i didn't want the rest of that. I rustled around until i found it. My necklace.

It was a simple gold chain that hung loosely around my neck. That wasn't what made it special though. Hanging off the chain was a red glass heart about the size of a golf ball. It was beautiful. It was bright scarlet, and had a gold rim around the end of the jewel. It was the only thing I managed to take before they sold all of grandma's stuff. She was the only person who ever loved me. We'd bake cookies, play dress up, and picked strawberries in her huge, wonderful garden. She always told me that i'd have my chance at happiness one day, as long as i was around to see it. Even then she knew I wasn't happy. Grandma was the happiest, most generous person i knew. She reminded me of Toriel.

I scooped up the necklace and climbed out the window right before she broke the door down. I could still hear my mother shout how I was a dirty rotten thief as I ran away.

I made my way to the mayors office. There was Toriel! But, what was she doing?! Toriel was standing in front of a mob, dumbfounded. I ran my way to the front of the crowd.

It turns out I was right about what I said before. The crowd was split in two. One was screaming "Kill the monsters" "No one wants their kind!" "Don't forget why we put them there in the first place!" And the other was shouting "They haven't done anything to us!" "They just want us to live peacefully together!" "We can benefit from each other!" "We can HELP each other!" the mayor seemed to be unable to decide what to do.

I did something crazy.

"HEY!" Everyone stopped shouting and looked directly at me. It was now or never.

"I have an idea." The crowd murmured something about being just a kid. I ignored it and kept talking. "We could send someone down there and see what the monsters are like. Then we can decide what do with them. We can't judge an entire race that we don't understand."

Everyone in the crowd seemed satisfied. But I knew it was going to be a while before the humans would get this deal organized so what the mayor said next was going to make or break the fate of all monster kind.

"We will have to turn this over to the federal government. This is completely out of my jurisdiction. But, we will give the monsters the same rights that every person in this country has. We will keep them in the village until the matter is decided." The mayor looked satisfied with his answer. The people were not, but they knew that the statement was final and there would be nothing else said.

It didn't really help, but it didn't damn us either.

We were all sent to the inn. Well, the monsters were. I was swallowed by the crowd and separated from Mom. The monsters knew it would be smart to co operate and didn't put up too much fuss about leaving me behind. I was a little hurt about that. i would have thought they would have said _something_. Until Asgore turned around and formally requested the small human that argued for their innocence stay with them. The guards were sceptical.

"I'd like to stay with them. I just want to know them better."

The other monsters caught on quite quickly.

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD LOVE TO GET TO KNOW THE SMALL HUMAN."

"It would be nice to get to know your kind too. If you're going to study us, its o.. only right we would get to study you too" Alphys said with a bought of confidence.

I was so proud of her. She has never been so confident before. it filled me with determination.

The guards agreed and I stayed with Papyrus and Sans. It was deemed too dangerous for a kid to stay with the King and Queen of another world with questionable intentions. Papyrus and Sans were the least threatening of the group. At last I was re-united with my friends and family once again.


	6. Chapter 6

I entered the hotel room.

It wasn't that bad. The walls were baby blue with a blue bird print, the bathroom was squeaky clean and white as paper. It was almost over whelming having all of that white in one place. There was a little blue nightlight plugged into the hair dyer outlet. There were two queen sized beds, a small single cot, a box like T.V with only seven channels that was a little on the small side, two overstuffed red chairs, a cream lamp a little taller than Papyrus, and a plain computer desk. The room felt about ten years outdated, but it was comfy.

"WHY I AM SO GLAD THAT THE HUMAN DECIDED TO STAY WITH US. ISN'T THAT RIGHT SANS?"

"Sure bro."

"YOU DON'T SEEM VERY ENTHUSIASTIC SANS. THATS NO ATTITUDE TO TKE WHEN WE ARE ON THE SURFACE!"

Papyrus was trying very hard to make me feel welcome. Its not his fault. Sans and I must have gotten off on the wrong foot or something. He has never been mean or outright said he hated me, but he wasn't very friendly either. Any way he didn't like me very much.

"Its okay Papyrus." I tried to find a way to change the subject so he wouldn't bug Sans anymore.

"Do you want to watch T.V?" I offered to Papyrus.

"SURE HUMAN! WHAT DO YOU WANT TO WATCH?" Papyrus seemed to perk up a little at this. He loved Mettaton's shows. The only thing we have thats similar is reality T.V shows. I couldn't find any so i turned on the food network. I figured he'd like that. We sat down on the bed in front of the T.V. Papyrus was having a blast seeing the chefs prepare gourmet food.

"WOW! I DIDNT KNOW THAT THERE WERE SO MANY WAYS TO MAKE SPAGHETTI!"

I couldn't help but giggle.

We watched the food network until I could barely keep my eyes open. I climbed into the cot in the middle of a guy eating some really greasy food. Papyrus was starting to look tired too.

"Papyrus, maybe you should go to bed too." I hoped he would listen. i didn't know what happened to skeletons when they stayed up too late, but I imagined they would just collapse into a pile of bones. Even if it was just my imagination, I wasn't going to risk it.

"OH VERY WELL HUMAN. GOODNIGHT."

He climbed into his bed. The comforter was dark green with a pink flower print embroidered on top; the sheets were bright pink. It reminded me of his personality. Sans was sleeping over top of the blankets. Against my better judgement I decided that I'd tuck Sans in. I moved back the covers so he would fit without me having to move the blankets back after I'd set him down. Now all I need to do is pick him up and lay him down. this wasn't as easy as i though it was going to be. *This filled you with determination.* I wrapped my arm around his back and underneath his knees and lifted him with all of my might. He was a whole lot heavier than I expected him to be but I managed to lay him down under the covers. I lifted the blanket up to his chin and tucked him in snug.

I lied down on my own cot and fell asleep.

Frisk woke in a bed of flowers

Oh no. Not another dream.

"Don't be scared."

"Who.. Who are you?!" I was scared. Last night I woke up crying. it seemed like i was missing something. Like my brain wouldn't let me remember something important. I wondered if it was something traumatic. I read something about people's brain purposely forgetting something that drastically hurt them in school.

"Im Chara. Or more specifically you, from another timeline."

"I can't remember you. I'm sorry."

"Its alright. Ill tell you more later. But, at the moment, someone desperately needs your determination."

"Who?"

The dream went black and I woke up. I could hear faint crying from the bathroom. It sounded muffled, like it was being repressed. I got off my cot and walked slowly to the bathroom. It was dark besides the little nightlight in the bathroom that shone from underneath the door. Papyrus was snoring louder than a whale. At least I knew he wasn't the one crying.

I made my way silently to the door. My footsteps were softened by the grey carpet. I listened. I knew it was Sans in there but I though if I listened I could tell what was bothering him before I went inside. I couldn't hear anything besides the occasional sob so I opened the door. I opened it as slowly as I could. I didn't want to freak him out too much. I walked into the room and closed the door gently behind me.

Sans was a wreck. He was in the low bathtub, holding his knees and crying softly. Sans had his blanket on the ground around him as if it slipped off his shoulders. His hands were over his face. He didn't see me come in. I got into the tub and wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. He looked up, tears streaming down his skull. I couldn't tell if he was surprised or scared. I sat down beside him and gave him a great big bear hug. For a while Sans just cried into my shoulder. It was soaked by the time he started to hug me back.

"What's wrong Sans?"

"You really can't remember a... anything. C.. can you? You did te.. t.. terrible thing.. things to the people i c.. c.. care about. You were a... a m.. monster! Then you just r... reset it all. You did it again... and again. killing different people each time. And i just had to sit back and watch it all happen." He was bawling now. He just wouldn't stop crying. It wasn't long until i started to cry with him. I knew about most of the resets. Times where i lost all control of my body. I would kill people just because I wanted to see what would happen if i killed a specific monster. But I knew he wasn't too upset about those ones. Im positive he's talking about a reset that was so terrible I refused to remember it. I cried and cried and cried. Why did i do those things to those sweet monsters? Why would i do something so terrible? What did this have to do with Chara? Why was i like that? Whats wrong with me?

I couldn't tell how long I'd been crying. i looked up and saw Sans right in front of me. He had a hand on my right shoulder and was staring directly into my eyes. He looked sad, and a little bit worried.

"You remember some of it."

It was more of a statement then an answer. I nodded.

"Then you must understand why i've been hurting."

I didn't quite understand. He was so sad. I'm sure it had something to do with a timeline where i killed people, but i don't know who i killed or how many i killed. I needed to tell him exactly what I knew. Im not excited for this.

"Sans I know about other timelines where I killed monsters. It would start with me killing one monster then something would take control. For the next few resets i wouldn't have control over what i did. Its like something snapped. I never killed any boss monsters though, but I... I can't re...remem... remember all of them. Theres this, uhh, sort of person, named Chara. They talk to me when i sleep. They said that i did something terrible, but i can't remember what i did. Chara said that they'd tell me what i did when i could handle the answer. Bu... bu... but I don't know what i... it means."

I was crying so hard I couldn't even see two inches infant of my face. i felt ashamed. I couldn't change it. It wasn't right. Now Sans hated me. I... I-

"Kid."

I looked up. Sans looked at me with a sympathetic smile on his face. He was still crying but it seemed as if he kind of understood.

"You weren't in control?" He asked.

"No."

"Then you can't blame yourself."

Sans gave me a hug. It meant so many things, but what it felt like was even better. It was as if i could feel my sins wash away.

"Sans?"

"Yeah, kid?"

"Did you hate me?"

"I did. But I was wrong. Very, _very_ wrong."

Sans started to hug me again. He even rubbed my back. It felt good to know how he felt and how he feels. I felt, free.

Sans and I stopped hugging eventually and make our way back to our beds. I was going to walk back to my cot but then I heard Sans start to talk.

"Uhh. Hey kid."

I turned around, a little confused.

"Can you, uhh, sleep with me. Im chilled to the _Bone._ "

He blushed a hue of blue and looked away. It seemed as if he was bracing himself for a rejection.

"Sure, Sans."

Sans looked surprised. I walked over and climbed into the other side of the bed. Sans got into his side. I figured I had nothing to loose so I moved over and snuggled up to Sans. Like it or not, I wanted some comfort from my breakdown a few minutes ago and he _was_ cold. Sans was very tense for a few moments. I figured he wasn't used to sleeping with someone. After a while he loosened up a little and snuggled back. I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Frisk woke up in an Inn bed.

When I woke up in the morning Sans was still asleep. It was before dawn. The room was cold. A faint light glowed from underneath the curtains. Everything was peaceful. I had my head resting on Sans's stomach. I sleepily started to remember that skeletons don't have stomachs. Wait, he didn't have a stomach. I lifted up his shirt. I could see his hip bones, his spine, and part of his ribcage. I touched his spine so I knew I wasn't seeing things. Sans shifted a little in his sleep when i touched him. I lowered his shirt and put my head back down. My head was resting on his non-existent stomach. _Weird._

I rolled over slowly and tossed my legs over the side of the bed. I sat up and rearranged the blankets around Sans so he wouldn't wake up and made my way over to my duffle bag. That's when I realized that Papyrus was gone. He left the door open. Thats the reason it's so cold in here. I closed the door and started to rustle around in my duffle bag. I fished out a blue shirt, my sweater, a pair of black shorts, And my grandma's necklace. I took my bundle of clothes and headed to the bathroom to shower and change.

The shower was a little on the hot side. I dumped my clothes onto the floor and got in the shower. It felt good to finally be able to wash my greasy hair. When I got out It felt like I had just washed away a whole layer of skin. A thick layer of steam filled the bathroom and covered the mirror. I tried to wipe a patch of the mirror with a face cloth, but it didn't help much. I dried myself off with a white, fussy towel and blew out my hair with the black hairdryer attached to the wall. All that was left to do was put on my clothes and go outside.

It was light outside when I left the bathroom. Papyrus had come back with some donuts and hot chocolate. Im surprised he didn't bring a healthy breakfast, but I wasn't about to complain.

"GOOD MORNING HUMAN! I THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS BROUGHT YOU BREAKFAST."

"Thanks Papyrus!"

"WHICH ONE DO YOU WANT?"

"I want the boston cream, please."

Papyrus served me the donut and a small hot chocolate. We sat down on his bed and I turned on the T.V to the news. They were discussing what they were going to do with the new found monster race. It didn't look too good. Most of the people saw us as a threat and wanted to seal us back underground, but they didn't have enough power to do that. Some people, though, wanted to help us. They brought up that with the monsters magic we could make daily tasks and jobs easier. They wouldn't have a need for heavy machinery or plant chemical sprays with their help. *This fills you with Determination.* I knew it wasn't looking too great, but if there were enough people who had faith in the monsters, we might be able to live together peacefully.

"IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A WHOLE LOT OF THE PEOPLE HERE LIKE US."

"Naw, don't worry about it. Im sure they'll love you once they see what a cool dude you are."

That seemed to make Papyrus feel a little better.

"YOUR RIGHT HUMAN! I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL CONVINCE THEM THAT I'M THE COOLEST DUDE THERE IS!"

We watched for a while longer then switched to the food channel. The cooking competition where the judge yells at all of the contestants was on. He reminded me of Undynde, but a little more mean. It was around noon when I decided to visit Toriel. I assumed that Asgore would be annoying the hell out of her by now and I missed her.

"Papyrus, Im going to go visit Mom."

"OKAY HUMAN. SAFE TRAVELS!" He was too absorbed by the T.V to really understand that I was leaving. I left anyway.

When i got outside i met the two guards that were outside the doorway.

"Woah kid. We have to ask you a few questions." The one on the right said. He didn't seem to be too happy being sent to guard a bunch of monsters.

He lead me to a police car. We drove for a few minutes before they led me into the police station. I was sat down in the interrogation room. It was scary and plain. One light illuminating the room, a two way mirror along one wall, grey walls, and a huge steel table that was welded to the floor. The police man came in and gave me a chair to sit on. I sat there for about twenty minutes before a woman with short, sandy blonde hair came in. She wore a blue suite and played a black briefcase on the table. She had dim grey eyes, and skinny rectangular glasses. She was fairly thin. She wore her hair back into a small pony tail. She was very intimidating.

"I want to ask you a few questions." she said plainly. There was a slight amount of sternness in her voice.

"Whats your name?"

"My name is Frisk Dremmur." It felt good using Mom's last mane for the first time. The lady moved on quickly.

"How old are you?"

"14." I wasn't quite sure if it was right. the last birthday I celebrated I was five. It didn't end well and I've never had one since.

"Where are your parents?"

"Dead" If I didn't lie I was going to be killed anyway. Thinking about it sent a chill up my spine.

"How do you know the monster?" She paused after this one, as if to show me that this answer was important.

"I fell through the seal. I was up on the mountain and i fell down a pit. The monster, Toriel, saved my life."

"Go on." She was writing on a note pad so fast it almost didn't look like he was writing at all."

"She baked me a pie and was even planning on raising me as her own." The lady looked at me above her glasses. She seemed surprised.

"I knew that I needed to at least try to get back to the surface. So I left and made my way to the barrier. I met all of the other monsters on the way. Papyrus, the skeleton, made me spaghetti, the Temm's that aren't on the surface sold me some cereal, Alphys guided me through the underground, and yeah." I decided to leave out the part where they all tried to kill/capture me so it wouldn't look so bad.

"What do the monsters want?" I could tell that there were going to be a lot more important questions like this. I better watch how i respond.

"They want to live on the surface." I answered plainly.

"Besides that." She said slightly annoyed, like everyone knew that.

"They really want to be able to see the sun again. Some monsters want to expand their businesses, others just want a better life for their kids. They're looking for a better life." I was happy with my answer.

"Do you seriously believe that?"

I was confused. Don't all people want a better life. She moved on before I could answer.

"Do you think that the monsters are a danger to humans?"

"No. Most monsters are very kind and have feeling just like you and me. There are some that aren't so great, but that happens with any group of people."

"Are those monsters a danger?"

"They could be, I guess. Most of them are already locked away. They work in the underground's power plant."

She seemed to be considering my answer. She scribbled down something on her note pad.

"Your time with the monsters is over. You'll be sent to the Charlestown orphanage." The lady started to pack up her things and leave. I couldn't help it.

"NO YOU CAN'T!" I blurted, almost in tears.

The lady turned around and was about to say something, but i interrupted her.

"You don't understand! Toriel **_adopted_** me! She loves me and cares for me more then my actual family EVER did. You're ripping me away from my family."

The lady looked surprised. She sat down and brought out her note pad again.

"I have been loved more then i have been my entire life. The monsters protected me. I was the one who broke the barrier in the first place. I want my friend to have a better life! They're so nice and kind. As far as I'm concerned they're one hundred times better then the human race ever was."

The lady didn't write anything down until i had finished. She looked up at me sad and teary eyed.

"I didn't know they were like that. I... I didn't have a good childhood either. I often wonder if-" Her voice trailed off as if she were remembering a very old and painful memory.

"Ill allow you to stay with the monsters. But, you must keep in mind that while you stay you'll be acting as a type of ambassador. People will want interviews and ask questions that are difficult to answer. If i let you stay, you will have a hard life ahead of you."

*This filled you with Determination.*

"Ill do anything if it means i'll get to stay with my family."

The lady turned away and headed towards the heavy, silver door.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing."


	8. Chapter 8

Frisk went back to the inn.

I was escorted by the guards that brought me to the police station, back to the inn. It turns out their names are Burton and Sall. They talked with me a little on the ride over. Burton really wanted the monsters to be freed. He asked if I could help him arrange for someone to help him build a cottage on Mnt. Ebott. I told him it would be a problem. Sall was't too excited about the monsters being freed. She has a 5 year old and is a little worried about him wandering into a bad situation. She didn't actually have a problem with the monsters here though. They dropped me off in front of the inn.

It was the first time I actually got a good look at where we were staying. It was more of a motel than an inn. There were two stories. There was a white painted, wooden stair case leading to the second floor. All of the rooms entrances were from the outside in. There wasn't a hallway connecting them. The first floor had two feet of cement in front of the doors level with the ground. The walls were cream. They looked as if they were once white, but were yellowed by the sunlight, and the roof and all of the door frames were a shade of light green. It wasn't very fancy. 2 guards were in front of the three rooms that housed my friends. Papyrus and Sans had the third room to the right on the second floor, Undyne and Alphys had the first room on the right side of the second floor, and Mom and Asgore had the second room on the right of the first floor. At least now I knew where everyone was.

I decided to go and visit Mom. I was planning on doing that in the first place, but its better late then never. After the guards said goodbye and went home I knocked on the door of Toriel's room.

*Knock* *knock* *Knock*

"Who is it?" Asked Toriel. She was obviously annoyed. It was too bad I didn't think of saying a knock knock joke before I did anything. Talk about an opportunity wasted.

"Its Frisk." I said trying to sound cheerful

Mom opened the door. She picked me up and spun me around like I was a little kid, and gave me a big hug. It felt nice to be back with her again.

"How are you, my child?" She asked, sounding relieved.

"Im good!" I sounded pretty convincing. The truth was I wasn't felling very optimistic after being asked all of those questions by that lady. It felt like we were on a loosing side. But I love my Mom and I want her to be as happy as I can make her. Even if it means I have to tell a few white lies.

"Oh thats great sweetie." It sounded like she may be telling a few white lies too.

"Hey kid!" Said Asgore. I could tell he was trying to get on Mom's good side. He must be failing miserably because Mom had a look of pure and utter annoyance on her face.

"Hey Asgore." I responded plainly.

"Come! Sit down." She gestured to a red chair identical to the one in our room.

I sat down. Mom laid down on the bed in front of me. Asgore had taken the other chair and I could tell she didn't want to be sitting overtop of me. She was laying on her stomach with her head propped up on her hands. She seemed stressed, but happy.

"So, hows it like bunking with Sans and Papyrus?"

"Good. Papyrus and I watch the food network and Sans mostly sleeps. Its great." I had a flashback from the other night. I wish I hadn't let Sans see me cry like that. "But Papyrus keeps on forgetting to close the door. It gets a little cold." I added trying to sound mad, but ended up sounding amused.

"Thats good. I was wondering if you'd get any sleep. Papyrus is a little too energetic for his own good." Mom added.

" _MOM!_ " I loved Papyrus. Energy and all. Its not really like her to make remarks like that.

"Oh my goodness! Im so sorry. I.. I guess I haven't been my self." Toriel sounded legitimately sorry. I felt bad for pointing it out.

"Its okay, Mom. Is Asgore bothering you?" I already knew the answer, but i though i'd better ask anyways.

"I have to admit he is. He just won't stop flirting." She seemed tired.

"Ill handle it." Mom didn't sound very happy about that. I went over anyway.

I walked over to Asgore who was reading a book on human politics in the other red chair. I cleared my throat to get his attention.

*HheehhHHmmmm*

"Oh hello, Frisk. Do you need something?" He sounded concerned. I couldn't help it. I liked Asgore. He just seemed like the cheesy bad joke type of dad. Honestly, I thought Mom was being a little hard on him, but he did need to lay off.

"Asgore?"

"Yes?"

"Mom's kinda stressed out right now."

"Ive noticed." He sounded concerned.

"I think it would help if you gave her space. _Lots_ of space."

Asgore looked confused for a moment. After a while he seemed to understand. He gestured for me to lean in for a whisper.

"Don't worry. You're old lady is the toughest woman I know." He leaned back and gave me a wink. I instantly felt better. While Mom wasn't looking I gave Asgore a quick kiss on the cheek. He blushed a little and told me to go back to Toriel.

I went back to my chair and sat down. She looked a little concerned about what I told Asgore, but she didn't say anything. We talked for a while. She asked the typical Mom questions like, "How was your day?", "What did you have for breakfast" {She wasn't too happy with my answer to that one} "How was my sleep." you know, stuff like that. Then I told her what happened today in full. I gave her every excruciating detail. From me being taken by the guards, to knocking on her door. She didn't talk for a while after that. I couldn't read her expression. Was it regret? Concern? Maybe sympathy? It started to freak me out.

"You... you said your name is... Frisk Dreemurr." She turned and looked at me.

Her face was a mixture of pride and pain. It looked like she was going to cry.

"I... I thought you adopted me." I started to regret everything I said to that lady. Even what I said my age was.

*Kiss*

I was shocked. Toriel picked me up and gave me one of her classic bear hugs. Her breath was shaky and there were tears streaming down her fur. She pulled away.

"I... I just... *sniff* I'm your Mom."

"Yeah."

"I've never been so proud."

I have her my biggest hug. Toriel hugged back. It was the best moment of my life. It was the first time I had a complete family and I would do anything to keep it safe.

We talked for a while, watched the comedy channel. Toriel loved the fat comedian who loved chocolate cake. The sun went down and it was time for me to go back to my room.

"Goodnight Mom, Asgore."

"Goodnight." They said in unison.

It felt good having a mom. I have a family. I was loved.


	9. Chapter 9

Frisk walked into their inn room.

Papyrus was holding Sans upside down by his ankles. He was shaking him.

"YOU LAZY BONES YOU'VE DONE NOTHNG BUT EAT AND SLEEP TODAY. THE ONLY THING YOU SAID TODAY WAS A CRAPPY PUN! IM SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR JOKES!" Papyrus yelled.

"Papyrus I think you should put Sans down.

Papyrus whirled around. He was so horrified I saw his outburst, he dropped Sans on his skull. He landed with a thud.

"Ow."

"IM SO SORRY YOU HAD TO SEE THAT. I DONT KNOW WHAT CAME OVER ME. I... IM SO SORRY SANS."

Papyrus was ashamed, and rightfully so. Id never seen Papyrus act like that before. I seriously hoped it wouldn't happen again. Sans limped to his bed and crawled inside. I hoped he wasn't hurt too bad.

I led Papyrus back to his bed. He seemed to be in shock. I warmed up the left over hot chocolate in the lobby microwave downstairs. I came back up and gave Papyrus a cup. He only sipped on it occasionally. I turned on the food network, hopping it would cheer him up a little. We watched in silence for about an hour until I couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"You're not a bad person Pap." I used his pet name hoping it would thaw him out a little bit.

"i don't know what went over me." Papyrus was still shocked.

"Papyrus?" The friendly monster looked at me with shame in his eyes. He knew I wanted an explanation.

"I'm just worried the humans won't like us. all monsters deserve to bask in the sunlight like i did."

"Like you _will_." I cut in. He only glanced at me and continued.

"everyone in the underground just wants a better life. they hope that the surface is the only thing holding them back, but so far the surface isn't any better then what's down there. only a little brighter and less garbage. they deserve so much more then i can give them." It looked like this had been bothering Papyrus. That the thought has crossed his mind many times before.

"You're not doing this alone Papyrus." He looked at me like he wanted me to continue. "Everyone is working so that poster will be able to live the life they want to live. And they will get that chance. Humans may be cruel, but they aren't heartless. Thats the only reason why I'm still aloud to be here with you guys. You aren't doing this alone. _**Everyone**_ is fighting with you."

Papyrus looked as if a great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He sat a little taller, sipped a little longer, and looked a little happier.

"THANK YOU HUMAN. THE GREAT PAPYRUS JUST NEEDED A PEP TALK THATS ALL!"

We had the old papyrus back.

Papyrus and I watched the food channel for a few hours after that. He started to get pretty tired again. I knew it was silly to think that he could fall apart, but he honestly looked like he could turn into a bag of bones at any second. His jaw was hanging from one side, his bones hung at their joints as if they weighed a hundred pounds. It gave me the creeps.

"Hey Papyrus. I think its time to go to bed."

"WHAT? OH YES. TIME FOR BED." Papyrus said sleepily. "DO YOU WANT ME TO TUCK YOU IN?"

"No thanks, Papyrus."

I brought my pyjamas to the bathroom to change. I actually only had an oversized purple and blue striped shit. It went down to my shins so it was sort of like a night gown. It was warm and light. I left the bathroom and closed the door behind me. I walked over tony cot and crawled inside.

It took me a while to fall asleep. There was too many things on my mind. I was worried about what the government would decide. I was worried about Mom. I was worried about all of the stress on my friend. Oh noooo. I haven't seen Undyne and Alphys in almost three days. I hope they're doing okay. I thought about the house i left behind. My sisters would love going through my stuff and my brothers would want to take over my room. I hated them, but they weren't bad people. Kids that let their home life make them terrible. I made a silent prayer that I would never end up like them. That was my last conscious thought.

Frisk woke up on a bed of flowers.

I woke up in the middle of Grilbys this time. I looked around. Everything was the same. Chara sat on a bar stool.

"Have a seat" They said over their shoulder. They patted the seat beside them. "I heard you wanted to know what you did last night."

I sat on the bar stool. "How do you know that?" I said a little uneasy.

"Because i'm a part of you." They replied flatly.

"But, wh-"

"Frisk, I'm possessing you." They said a little harsh. I was horrified. I was talking to a ghost. "Im a demon, actually."

I looked at them in utter disbelief. They could read my thoughts _and_ know what I did when I'm awake.

"You already know the story."

I did. The story about the kid that fell down. Asriel found them and the King and Queen adopted them. When the kid got hu- I didn't want to finish the thought. It hurt a little to think about.

"When you fell into the underground, my soul just, kinda, latched onto you. Your story was so similar to mine. I was the one who made you kill the monsters. _Every time._ Every single time you decided you wanted to hurt somebody, that was me. I hated the humans for what they did to me and what they did to my brother. I hated the monsters for not doing enough, I hated my parent for not noticing what was wrong, I hated my real parents for letting me run away. I hated everyone. Until  you. Frisk, you showed me that you shouldn't let what happens to you effect your actions. No matter _how_ terrible the things are. You had a life way shittier then mine was. I was a spoiled, entitled brat. Thats the only reason why I decided not to come back this time. I can't be screwing up someone else's life just because I fucked up my own. Im letting you make your own decisions."

I was a little shocked. I had no idea what to do with the information.

"But, Frisk, I still watch over you. Think of me as your other conscience. I notice things that you wouldn't on your own, suggest things you wouldn't have thought before, stuff like that." They said a little cheerful. I suppose they thought that trying to be helpful was better then just shutting up. They were right.

"I still don't know what I, uhh you did." I asked reproachfully.

"You're not ready."

And with that last comment, I woke up.

 ****I won't be able to post tomorrow, but there's a big chapter coming up so hang tight!****


	10. Chapter 10

Frisk woke up in the inn room.

I woke up with a start. I had so many questions and concerns. Why was Chara even talking to me? Isn't it a little weird that the demon possessing you wants to make your life better? The whole situation seems weird to me. And why did they think i wasn't ready to know what they did? Was it really that bad? It made me worry.

I snapped out of it. There was something seriously wrong. I sat up in my cot and looked around. Everything looked as it usually did. The room was dark, Papyrus was snoring, the glow from the nightlight came from under the bathroom door, th- I cut my thought short. There was some sort of blue smoke coming from Sans's bed. I jumped out of my cot and ran over to Sans.

He was on his side facing the wall. I went to the other side of the bed. What I saw almost scared me. Sans was trembling, the blue mist was coming from his left eye socket, and his face was twisted into an expression of pure terror. It took me a second to recover from the shock. I knew I had to do something before he started to cry, or scream.

I shook Sans as hard as I could. it didn't work. I climbed on top of him. That didn't do much either. I rolled him over, I punched his gut, I did everything i could think of. Well, not everything. I swallowed my pride hoping that I wouldn't get too embarrassed. I lied beside Sans, who was still shaking, and gave him a bear hug. That didn't work either. I was dreading what I was going to do next. I shifted my hug a little hoping he'd wake up before I was going to have to use my last plan. It didn't work. I shifted my hug, again. I moved Sans over so I was hugging his shoulders while he faced me. I loosened my grip on his body and gave him a simple kiss on his forehead. Sans stopped shaking. The blue mist faded away and Sans opened his eyes. He looked like he was going to cry.

"..." Sans was about to say something, but i cut him off.

"Shhhh, Sans. Its okay. Nothing's going to happen. Im here." I whispered in my most soothing voice.

I gave him another hug and didn't pull away. My arms were wrapped around his neck, my head was over his shoulder resting on the pillow. I made sure that I was hugging him as best as I could without making him uncomfortable. Sans hugged me back. His arms felt heavy and warm. It was the most comforting feeling I'd ever felt. I started to question who was comforting who, until Sans tightened his grip around my back and started to shake. It was the type of shake that happens to people right before they cry. It started to sound like Sans was going to say something, but I was sure if he did it would make it worse.

"Sans you don't need to say anything. You don't need to explain."

He started to sob. He tightened his grip and cried into my shoulder. I, in turn tightened my grip on him. Sans sounded completely broken. He was shaking and weeping. If he tried to stop he just cried harder. I started to quietly comfort him. To remind him that I'm really here.

"Shhhhh, Shhhhhhhh. Its okay. Its okay. Shhhhh. Im here, Sans. Shhhhhh. Its okay."

Sans started to quiet down after a while. He was still a little shaky. I refused to pull away first. When he's ready he'll pull away on his own, I figured. I moved my head so that i was looking at Sans, and found that he'd already been looking at me. He looked devastated. I had an idea.

"Sans, you should come see this." He looked a little puzzled, but he pulled away. I brought him his classic blue sweater. He was sitting up on the side of the bed, staring down at the floor. I motioned for him to put it on. He took it and put it on slowly. I grabbed his hand and led him to the door. I slipped on my sweater and brought him outside.

The guards outside were sleeping. I walked down the steps and across the parking lot. I lead Sans to the park two blocks away from the inn. At the centre of the park there was a large hill with a single tree on top. I lead him halfway up the hill and layed down. The grass was wet and a little cold, but the sky was as clear as crystal. I lay on my back and motioned for Sans to lie down with me. Above us was a galaxy of stars. They covered the sky like a blanket. Bright and dim, they were all gorgeous, twinkling like little diamonds in the sky. It was the most breathtaking starry night I'd ever seen. It was as if we could see the heavens if we looked hard enough. It was gorgeous.

I turned to look over at Sans. He looked amazed. The wonder and mystical look in his face made my heart ache. It suddenly occurred to me that this was the first time Sans had seen the stars. We stargazed for a long while. Suddenly Sans reached out and held my hand. His hands were bones, but it was as warm and comfortable as any other hand I'd ever held. It was wonderful, watching the stars and holding his hand.

"This is the... The most beautiful thing I've ever seen." Sans said dreamily.

We didn't talk for a while. We just lied there, hand in hand.

"We better go back." I said a little disappointed.

We stood up. I looked at Sans before he could start walking. He still had a sad look in his eyes, but there was a glimmer of something else. I couldn't tell what it was, but I knew it meant he was better than before. Maybe he'd be okay. Sans seemed to be studying my face too. I wondered what he saw. I hoped I wasn't wearing my emotions on my face. I looked at him for a few more seconds, hands still clutching each other. I smiled an empathetic smile. Sans smiled back. I was sure i was blushing like crazy at that point. We let go of our hands and walked back to the Inn.

We got back at around four in the morning. I tugged off my sweater and went back to sleep ion my cot. Sans went back to his bed.

When I woke up it was around eight A.M. Papyrus was back with some bagels with lettuce, tomato and cream cheese. He also had two coffees and a small hot chocolate. The radio was turned on. It was playing a catchy tune.

"Lady running down to the riptide. Taken away to t..." I liked it.

"GOOD MORNING HUMAN! HOW WAS YOUR SLEEP?" Papyrus asked, as chipper as ever.

"It was good."

"THAT'S GREAT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS BROUGHT YOU BREAKFAST! WOULD YOU LIKE HALF A BAGEL, OR A WHOLE ONE?"

"I'd like a whole one please"

"I KNOW THEY ARE NOT AS GOOD AS DONUTS, BUT THEY ARE DONUT SHAPED! THE QUEEN WASN'T VERY HAPPY WITH YOUR BREAKFAST YESTERDAY." Papyrus said. He always looked on the bright side.

We ate breakfast on Papyrus's bed and watched the food network. It was starting to become a routine. We didn't watch the news anymore. It never had any good news.

"Papyrus, what are you going to do today?" I said, trying to start a conversation.

"I DONT KNOW. I THINK IM GOING TO GO AND SEE THE QUEEN TODAY. UNDYNE SAID SHE NEEDED A BREAK FROM TRAINING FOR TODAY." It had never occurred to me that Papyrus would visit Undyne and Alphys. I felt ashamed I hadn't visited earlier. I was going to go today I decided.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TODAY, HUMAN?" Papyrus asked.

"Im going to go visit Alphys and Undyne." Papyrus looked a little concerned about that.

"WELL, IF YOU'RE GOING TO GO, MAKE SURE YOU DONT KNOCK BEFORE NOON. THEY'RE REALLY, VERY BUSY." He said, slightly concerned.

"Ill be careful." I said plainly.

I grabbed my outfit for today, my purple and blue sweater, blue shirt, a pair of black sweat pants, and my necklace, and went to change in the bathroom. When I came out Sans was awake and eating a bagel. It was probably the first time since we got here that he's been out of bed. They were sitting on Papyrus's bed watching the food network. It was Papyrus's favourite show. The one with the angry, yelling judge, and lots of yummy food.

"Good morning." Sans said while stuffing his face with bagel.

"BROTHER! YOU REALLY MUST CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH CLOSED!" Papyrus shouted, a little grossed out.

"I can't help it bro. I don't have the _GUTS_ to stop." Sans said with a shit faced grin.

"THAT ONE DIDN'T EVEN MAKE SENCE!"

I left the room about half past noon. I figured Alphys and Undyne would be up by now. I walked over to the other side of the inn and knocked on the big, metal door. The guards looked me over and nodded to each other. They then resumed standing and looking ahead. No answer. I knocked again, louder.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* Alphys answered the door.

"H.. Hello? Oh, Frisk! Come in, come in." Alphys gave a quick look at the guards and let me in.

Alphys wore her white lab coat, some comfy cyan sweat pants, and a red Kissy Cutie shirt. I loved the way she wore her clothes. Alphys wore clothes simply because: 1, she had to and 2, they were comfy.

Their room was identical to our room. I mean, besides the clothes all over the floor and the desk was pilled high with papers. There were clothes in the beds, on the lamp, on the floor, under the bed, on the T.V. everywhere. I don't remember them bringing any clothes from the underground, so how they got all of these clothes is beyond me. The papers were covered in Alphys's classic chicken scratch, and looked like plans for a small town. There were weights beside the T.V and it looked like Alphys had destroyed and re made the nightlight into a cool, flat lava lamp. How? I have absolutely no idea. It seemed to be the perfect balance of jock, mess, and brains.

"How are you, Alphys?" I was legitimatly worried about her. She wasn't all that confident and being in a strange world was totally out of her element.

"Im great! Did you know that they have waaaayyy more anime on the surface then the underground? They even have a Kissy Cuttie 3! Its way better then the second one, more true to the characters. And they have an awesome one about human eating giants! And alchemists! Theres just so much more!" Alphys said with so much enthusiasm I thought she was going to explode. I knew in that moment that she was going to be fine. Alphys looked like she just remembered something. "Undyne still thinks anime is real. Don't spoil it, please." She said in a hushed whisper.

"I promise"

"Good."

"Hey kid! Beat up any bad guys lately?" Said Undyne. She was doing bicep curls in the bathroom doorway. She wore her classic black tank top with combat jeans. Same old Undyne.

I ran up to her and gave her a big hug. I missed these guys. They were such good friends. Undyne lifted me up, threw me, and caught me. She always did that when she was really happy to see me.

"How're you, Undyne?"

"Im great! The surface is great. But there guards are pretty shrimpy. I challenged one the other day and he didn't even last two rounds."

I visited for the rest of the afternoon. We talked about beating people up, what we've done on the surface so far, what we're going to do when the monsters come on the surface, how the hell Alphys made a lava lamp night light out of nothing, and watched some anime. It was nice to catch up with them. We just finished another episode of "The Tiants" when i decided to go back to my own room.

"Going so soon?" Alphys asked.

"Its been six hours."

"If the twerp wants to go, let 'em. More for us." Undyne said flatly. She wasn't trying to be mean. I knew I would never leave if Alphys tried to get me to stay. It was for the best.

I said my goodbyes and made my way back to my room for supper.


	11. Chapter 11

***Trigger warning***

Frisk was lying awake in their cot.

It was late. After I came home from Alphys and Undyne's I came back to my room. Papyrus, Sans, and I ate pizza and watched the food network until bed. Now I was lying awake in my cot. I couldn't sleep. I wasn't afraid of my dreams or anything. I was afraid of what the government was going to do. Last I heard, the situation was handed over to the United Nations. I was scared that the humans were going to unleash a war on us, or that the monsters would be hunted and enslaved for their magic. None of these were happy thoughts.

I tried to quiet my mind. I listened. It was raining outside. The little pitter patter on the window was soothing and hypnotic. It must have been an overcast night. The nights were you can't sleep, but instead think and remember. I started to reflect about how far I'd come, what had happened to me before. It all started flooding back.

My first memory. I was three. My whole family was on the beach. It was my sisters birthday. She blew out the candles. She just turned twelve. I wandered off along the beach. My mother yelled at me, "Don't go too far!" I couldn't remember much after that.  
I was older. I was watching cartoons on our crappy T.V. The carpet was brighter. It had less sofa wasn't ripped. I was sitting about four feet from the T.V on an oversized pillow. "Hey! You can't be doing that!" I whirled my head around. It was my brother. "You just never listen do you?!" I was scared and confused. He never told me what I was doing wrong. "I didn't here you?" I asked. "Thats IT!" My brother picked me up, threw me to the ground, picked me up again, threw me into the closet, and locked me inside. I screamed! And screamed and cried. I was sobbing the whole time i was in there. I begged for him to let me out. I promised I'd be good. I'd apologize even. It was dark and cramped in there. Even when I was little. I was just so confused, and scared. I eventually passed out, still crying. When someone finally opened the door, I was a wreck. Half starved, tears burning my skin, my eyes swollen and stinging from the sudden, harsh light, my lungs felt like they were swollen and on fire from lack of oxygen. I looked up and saw my mother, with my brother behind her. "What were you thinking?!" she started, "You broke everything! The window is trashed and you broke my favourite vase!" "Wha-" I started, but I was cut off. "You shouldn't have been playing baseball in the house," My brother said with a cruel look on his face,"I told you to stop it." And thats when I realized I was everyone's punching bag.  
A few weeks after that I was sent to grandma's house. All of my siblings hated it there because grandma was strict, and made them do a lot of chores. I had never been to grandma's before. mother and father only sent them here if they were being bad. I walked up the porch steps and knocked on the door. Grandma answered. She saw me and immediately swooped me up into a great big hug. I was stunned. It was the first time anyone had ever hugged me before. She held my hand and lead me to the kitchen. She lifted me up onto a chair and put a metal bucket by me feet. I gave her a confused look. "My dear," she started in a sweet, honey like voice, "We're having corn on the cob and chicken for dinner!" My mouth watered. "But, you are going to have to help." I looked at her. She had a warm look in her eyes. She looked like she had been smiling all of her life, like she never complained about anything. "You're going to shuck the corn on the table o'er there." She pointed to the table behind me. "So you better get cracking!"  
I was back at home. My siblings were all crowded around the T.V. They were watching baseball. I remember the bruises going all the way up my arms. They were all from them. Mom hit me with a broom because I wasn't cleaning fast enough, another four from where my brothers beat me because I lost the baseball, and a few from my sisters from where i accidentally knocked over their makeup bag. I felt miserable.  
I was crying in my bed. I was just let out of the closet for another one of my brother's episodes. I was miserable in this place. My dad had been home for the first time in months. I had two cigarette burns on my arm. I didn't know my dad was as bad as everyone else. I climbed out of my window and ran. I didn't know where I was running to, but I knew I needed to get there fast. I ended up in the middle of the community dump three miles away. I collapsed onto a broken mirror. The broken glass cut into the flesh on my arms, chest, thighs, and a little on my neck. I started crying, softly, as if I didn't really want anyone to find me. I was still crying when the social services found me there. I was rushed to the hospital. I needed almost two hundred stitches to prevent me from bleeding out. I was sobbing the entire time.  
I was in a police station. It wasn't the interrogation room, instead it was a comfy place with pictures on the walls and comfy chairs. The lady from social services was asking me a lot of questions. All I could do was sob. She kept asking me where i got my bruises from, and where the burns came from. I insisted that she wouldn't like the answer and continued to cry. I cried until i didn't have enough tears left to cry. I sat there shaking. "Im going to ask you one more time," the lady said, soothingly, "Where did you get those bruises." I took a very long, shaky breath. "My siblings bruised me." I stared at the floor. I couldn't handle looking at her face anymore. "Thats all I need to know."  
I was at Grandma's. I was really happy. We were weeding the cabbages in her huge garden. The house was in a large clearing in the forrest. It was about thirty miles from Mnt. Ebott. We were surrounded by the sweet smell of pines and ripening blueberries. It was wonderful. "Well, hun, do you think we have enough cabbage for saurcrout?" Grandma asked cheerfully. I nodded my head. We spent the whole afternoon covered in vinegar and shredded cabbage. I had managed to flip the pot over on my head. I was worried that Grandma would be mad, but she just stared for a second and laughed. We ended up laughing our guts out on the basement floor.  
"Well, hun," she always called me hun. I loved the nickname, "Do you have any dreams?" We were in a clearing about a mile from the house. We were watching the stars. It was our favourite thing to do together. We did it whenever we had a bad or frustrating day. Grandma said that it helped her clear her head. "I don't know Grandma. I've never thought it." It was true. I was usually too worried about day to day things to be bothered about things like dreams. "Oh come on hun. You're allowed to have dreams with me." I thought about it. There was only one thing I wanted out of life. "Grandma?" "Yes dear?" Grandma asked. "I want to be loved each and every day. Thats my dream." Grandma looked like she was going to cry. "If I can help it, you are never going to go back to those rotten people ever again." She looked very determined to make that happen. "What's your dream, Grandma?" She looked like she was lost in thought. Grandma always looked like that whenever she was thinking about better times. "I want to visit Mnt. Ebott. I want to see how it's changed since I was there as a girl. Grandma and I got up and walked back to the house.  
Grandma and I were at the village, Samburry, for groceries. We rarely needed to go into town for anything. Grandma usually had everything we needed. Preserves from the basement, vegetables and fruit from the garden, the boy who sells eggs usually came by every Saturday, and the milk man came by on Mondays. We only needed to come into town for meat. Grandma wanted to make pulled pork sandwiches this week. After shopping we went out for cream soda floats from the ice cream stand. We went back home and ate leftovers. I went to bed in my steel framed, single mattress bed. I was sleeping underneath a quilt she sewed especially for me. It was purple and blue, my favourite colours. I heard Grandma talking to someone on the phone downstairs. I got out of bed and sneaked down the stairs to listen in. She was done by the time I was down the stairs. She was in her baby blue rocking chair, crying. "What's wrong?" I asked. I was sad, Grandma never cried. ever. "Oh hun. They want me to give you back." She said with a defeated look on her face. "I can't go back! They're so mean. Please, don't let me go." I was very, very sad. "Hun, I was able to convince the agency to keep you from your relatives. I'm crying tears of joy." I looked a little closer, wondering if she was telling the truth. She was! I jumped into her lap and have her a great big hug. She hugged me back, and we just sat there for a while, laughing and crying. She let me go and told me to go back to bed.  
Grandma and I worked in the garden each and every day. She taught me how to do the bills, and science, and grammar. Other than that, as far as she was concerned, you learned by experiencing. We were happy. We went to the beach one time, and a seagull stole grandma's hat and flew away with it. It was a funny picture. We had fun visiting the neighbours. They lived on a farm a few miles from here and had a bunch of kids around my age, including the boy who sold us eggs. I eventually got a crush on him. He was funny, and oh, so cute. Us kids had fun jumping into the dugout and chasing the ducks out so we could swim. We would run off of a big Elm tree into the water, and we swung into it from a tattered rope swing. We had a blast. I helped raise some chicks, and gather eggs. Thomas, the egg boy, taught me how to milk a cow. Most of the milk always ended up on my face, but the look on his face was priceless. He would laugh at me whenever I did it wrong. One day I was feeling a little cruel and i devised a plan. "Hey Thomas. Can you try to help instead of laugh at me?!" He came close. He was about to help me when, "SPLAT!" I sprayed the warm milk onto my face. He looked shocked, But eventually he started laughing so hard that he knocked over the milk pail. We just sat there in the straw and laughed. I was living a paradise.  
Grandma and I were going through her old jewelry. I loved doing this with her. All of her different bracelets and necklaces each held a different story. I fished around in the attic until i found a new jewelry box that we'd never gone through before. I brought it down to Grandma's room and she opened the box delicately. When she opened it, she gasped. "Where did you find this?" she asked cooly. "I found it in the attic." I said, a little confused. She sounded like she was holding back an uncontrolled rage. "If you found this that means-" She stopped before she could continue. She turned so that she was facing me. "Frisk, what I'm about to tell you could mean life or death." She said grimly. "Wh... what does that mean?" Grandma looked at the ground, a little sad. "It means you're next." I was about to ask her what that meant, but she continued before i had a chance to say anything. "I was best friends with a beautiful girl once upon a time. She was the love of my life. One day she found a necklace like this, but it was blue. It quickly became her favourite necklace. She wore it every day, and polished it once a month. It was her prized possession, second only to her Mother's wedding band. One day we took a hike on Mnt. Ebott like we had many times before. But this time it was weird. The necklace started to glow. On the third day of our hike, she said that she needed to jump into a pit. I begged her not to, but she just said, "Sorry." and jumped backwards, watching me as she fell as if to say goodbye. The necklace glowed so bright on the way down that it almost blinded me just by watching her fall. Two more kids fell in my lifetime that all wore a similar necklace. All children who wear this necklace fall into that pit, and never return." I was confused as to why she told me this, but she never said anything else.  
We had a great year and a half together. I played with the neighbour boy, his big sisters taught me how to make straw hats. They became a second family to me. We had cook outs, and fish frys, and we rode horses through the woods. My best memories are with grandma and the neighbour kids. I loved them.  
We were in a regular routine now. I would finish my Grandma's basic lessons and go over to the neighbours' house to ,"learn from experience" as Grandma put it. It was just another day. It was hot, so we were in the dugout the entire day. We Jumped off the tree, and swam, mostly. That night Thomas's Papa brought a good catch from the lake so we had a fish fry in the hearing about 200 feet from the dugout. We sang campfire songs and ate marshmallows. Grandma was going to go back to the house for some hot chocolate. We sang a couple more songs. Thomas was trying to tach me how to strum the guitar when we heard a loud "BANG!" We all sprinted toward the house and saw the house engulfed in a fiery inferno of flames. "GRANDMA!" I sprinted to the house, blind by tears. Thomas caught me before i ran into what was left of the house, grabbed me, And held me as tightly as he could. "LET ME GO! Let ME GOOOOOOO!" I was crying as hard as I'd ever had before. I was struggling against Thomas's grip. I was trying to get free. He slowly started to drag me away from the flames. "GRANDMA! GRAAAAANNNNNDDDDDMMMMAAAAA!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. My legs gave out as the grief started to overwhelm me. Thomas supported my weight and dragged me slowly away from the flames. He collapsed onto the ground with me. He lifted me onto his chest and held me there, crying very loudly into his shoulder. He was grabbing my shirt back and I realized that he was crying too. I had never known what devastation was until that day.  
Thomas's family moved into Grandma's house temporarily. The boiler had exploded. She would have been killed instantly. I didn't cry after that night. There I was. Living with the family of my dreams, and I couldn't feel anything. It was about two weeks until the agency had things lined up for me to go back to my biological family. That night Thomas came into my room. "Hey," I looked at him. He looked bad, like he had been crying, but long enough ago that he was just sad and shaky. "You know, you could live with us. You could be my family." I looked at him. "You guys have given me so much. You gave me a home when I never asked for one. You showed me kindness when I never deserved any. You gave me a life I could live with." I looked at him with tears threatening to roll down my face. "I love you. Please don't say I never loved me because I've always had. I just can't ask for more." I stared down at the floor. "I never deserved to receive love in return." Thomas walked towards me. He sat down and pulled me onto his lap. He made me look into his eyes. "You deserve so much more then what we can give you." I started to cry. He held me and cried softly along. "I love you, Frisk." I looked at him, dead in the eyes. "I will die if I go back there." "I know." He looked back. I put my hand on either side of his face, and he quickly leaned in and kissed me. I pulled away after a while. "I love you." He said simply. I went across my room, rustled around, and returned with a gift. I have Thomas my most prized possession. A picture of him and me underneath the Elm tree, his arm around my back, my head resting on his shoulder. "Ill never forget you." He looked at me, puzzled. I kissed him one last time, and left.  
I watched my biological family take all of Grandmas stuff away. They hauled it into a cheap moving van. While they were starting to haul out the attic Grandma's necklace caught my eye. I quickly grabbed it. I went up to Thomas. He looked shaky, like he'd been crying again. He was looking down at the grass, trying not to look at my face. "Thomas?" He looked up. He looked like he had been in a lot of pain, and was putting on a brave face for me. I gave him the necklace. He looked at the necklace, then back at me. "Can you keep this safe?" He gave me a closer look. He saw there was a new bruise on my arm where my mother had threw me down the stairs. She said I was in her way, but really, she was just angry that I got her into a lot of trouble. He took a step towards me. "I know the story, Frisk. Is... is that what you're planning to do?" He already knew the story. I gave him a big hug. I looked up at him. "I can't stay with these people, and I can't stay with you." I added sadly. "We could run away together," he was holding my hands now, "You don't need to jump into that pit alone." I refused to let myself cry in front of my family. They would be too worried and wouldn't let me go. "I won't let you die." I said, drained of emotions. "If you leave, I'm going to be dead on the inside anyways." I looked up at him one more time. "I meant what I said in my room last night." "So did I, just now." I felt defeated. "You deserve a better life than I can offer you, anyways."  
That night I ran all the way to Mnt. Ebott. I was gazing down at the pit from Grandma's story. I looked up at the sky. A single tear ran down my face. "Ive lost everything" I whispered. There I was, completely broken, devastated, and grieving. I lost everything I'd ever loved. I'd lost my dream. I jumped into the pit, still looking at the stars.


	12. Chapter 12

Frisk woke up in their cot.

I fell asleep consumed by my thoughts. When I woke I wasn't very well rested, to say the least. I swung my feet off my cot, and sat up. I looked around the room. Sans and Papyrus were gone, and so was all of their stuff. The beds' covers and sheets were tossed onto the floor in a huge heaping mess. The bathroom towels were folded on the counter, and the soaps were gone. It looked like someone was in a hurry to get out of here. I got up with a start. I looked for my duffle bag. It was gone, but there was a neat outfit picked out for me with a note on top;

"HUMAN! YOU ARE TO GO TO THE QUEENS ROOM AT ONCE. YOUR BAG IS SAFE IN THE CAPABLE HANDS OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS. -signed Papyrus."

I rolled my eyes and got out of bed. I put on my outfit quickly in the bathroom. I was happy to see that Papyrus had remembered to leave my necklace. I laced up my shoes, grabbed my pillow and sleeping shirt, and left.

I walked down the white steps to Mom Goat's room. The air was crisp and cool. I decided to just walk inside the room instead of knocking. I could hear shouting and general chaos coming from the other side of the door. I opened the door to see quite a scene. Papyrus was carrying a still sleeping Sans, Undyne was beating up a radio into little pieces, Alphys was scribbling frantically in her note book, only to tear apart the paper seconds later, Mom was talking on the phone in the bathroom, and Asgore was packing up everyone's stuff. I was honestly confused why everyone was acting so strangely. I went up to Papyrus to ask for my duffle back.

"Papyrus?"

"YES HUMAN?" Papyrus asked. He seemed pretty excited, but i didn't know why.

"Do you have my duffle bag?" I asked happily. Papyrus' enthusiasm was starting to rub off of me already.

"YES HUMAN, I DO! I REFUSED TO GIVE IT TO ASGORE SO THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WOULD NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK ON MY WORD." Papyrus looked like he was going to explode from enthusiasm. He handed me my duffle bag and i stuffed my leftover stuff inside.

I walked over to Asgore and handed him my pack. He looked majorly stressed out. I gave him a sweet smile. I wasn't really in the mood to talk to him at the moment though, so I walked over to Alphys. I glanced over her shoulder to, hopefully, get an idea of what was happening, but her writing was too terrible to read. Alphys didn't look like she was in much of a mood for talking, so I went over to Undyne. Undyne was done destroying the radio, and was now sitting on the end of the bed and lifting weights. She, unlike anyone else in the room, looked like she wanted to talk.

"Hey, Undyne. What's happening?" I asked, sounding pretty excited.

"Didn't you hear?" She asked harshly, "The humans are sending an ambassador down to the underground. We're all leaving today, and you are going to stand as the monster-human ambassador after all. There's going to be a lot of town celebrations, and a performance from Metteton. Its going to be AWESOME!" She was super pumped up now. It sounded as if she could go on for ages about all of the parties they're going to throw, and the royal guard is going to do a presentation.

Undyne and Papyrus seemed to be the only ones excited. Mom, Alphys, and Asgore were so stressed out they looked like they could snap at any moment. Sans was asleep. I needed to ask Undyne a few more questions before I'd be totally confident about what was happening.

"When are we leaving?"

"In an hour." She answered, still pumped up, but starting to cool off.

"What am I going to do?"

"Toriel is figuring that out right now. She'll only be a few more moments." Undyne answered.

I decided to hang out with Papyrus for a while. We talked about how excited we were about having the ambassador meet the monsters. I was so excited that I just couldn't sit still, so I got Undyne to lift me instead of her weights. That was fun. It only lasted for about ten minutes though. I decided that the only thing that there was left to do was to try and wake up Sans. I got Papyrus to set Sans on the bed so i could try. I tried tickling him first, it didn't work. I sat on his stomach, I kicked his leg, I lifted his arm and dropped it on his face, I lifted him up by his ankles as far as I could lift him, I rolled him over, I yelled at his face, lastly I cracked my fingers. Sans woke up instantly and fell off the bed terrified. I was confused. I was just about to start to tickle him again. I glanced up at Papyrus and he was horrified too. Sans looked up over the bed at my hands. He lifted my hand and started to study it, as if he was looking for broken bones.

"H...H...How did you _do_ that?!" He asked horrified.

"They just do that. It makes them easier to move, and a little more comfortable to use." I answered.

"How didn't they break?!" Sans asked, more curious than scared now. Papyrus was rocking back and forth on the floor like he had just witnessed something tramatic.

"I have muscles and connective tissue in-between my bones. It makes it really hard to break one." I answered the best I could.

Just then Mom came out of the bathroom. Everyone was silent, waiting for her to tell us the plan. She regarded us each individually and sighed heavily.

"We are to go to the Mayors office. The ambassador and our guide to the barrier will meet us there. They will drive us as far as they can and then we will hike up the rest of the way. That's all they told me." Toriel sounded excited and a little concerned, but mostly excited.

"Well then, what are we waiting for!?" Undyne said excitedly.

Asgore carried all of our bags. We were escorted by our guards down to the mayors' office. Sal was actually a little excited. She said that her boy was going to be so proud of her. *This filled you with Determination* We pulled up to the building. All of us were lead through a mob of reporters and news anchors. We barely made it into the building. We walked through the building until we were in a large office. The mayor and a tall, brown haired man stood in the middle of the room. The man stepped forward and started speaking.

"Hello. My name is Anthony. I've been selected to be an ambassador of the human race on the expedition to the underground to deem weather the monster kind are compatible with our kind." He addressed the entire group. He then walked up to me and shook my hand. He had a firm, heavy grasp. "You must be Frisk?" I nodded yes.

"I am Frisk. I've been appointed the official ambassador for the monster kind. I also single handedly liberated their entire civilization."

It took me two days to write that. After my interrogation I wanted to be absolutely sure how I was going to introduce myself, so I'd be taken seriously. The mayor looked pretty intimidated by me, but Anthony did not. He simply smiled and let go of my hand.

"So we should be off. The sooner we leave the sooner we'll get there." Anthony said, trying to sound enthusiastic, but it came off like he already had an opinion on the monsters and wasn't very excited to get there. I'd show him. *This filled you with Determination*

We were lead back to the vehicle. They set off straight toward Mnt. Ebott. I watched out of the window most of the time. Mom and Asgore had taken over talking to the ambassador for the rest of the trip, as far as I was concerned. I watched us pass farm houses, orchards, and breathtaking views of lakes and rivers cutting through the pines like a knife. We were making great time. If we kept this up we'd be able to make it to the underground by tomorrow morning. We suddenly took a sharp left turn. I whirled my head around and looked directly at Anthony.

"Where are we going?!" I tried to say as intimidating as I could. Mom looked concerned. It made me angry. "This little short cut was _not_ part of the plan."

"We need to pick up another ambassador." Anthony said simply.

"We only have one. What makes you think you can have more?" I asked, trying to regain control of my sudden anger.

"We need to determine if the monsters respond well to children." He replied.

"Im a kid, and I'm representing their race. I think they do well with children." I responded, flatly.

"No offence, but you have already been exposed to the monsters. They're used to you. As far as we can see, they haven't had any other interactions with children besides you for a long time." He was right. I looked back out the window, defeated.

The road started to look familiar. The trees were placed in a familiar pattern. It took me a second, but I realized where we were going. I fought ferociously against my emotions. I would not cry. I would not cry. We turned into the farm yard, and sure enough, there he was. He was tall now, and a little more broad across the shoulders, but still him. He picked up his bag and headed towards the vehicle door. The door opened and he ducked inside. He sat beside Anthony and studied the floor so intently I thought he was going to memorize it. I kept my eyes out of the window for the rest of the ride.

We got to the end of the road in the late afternoon. The day was a little cold and damp, but was otherwise okay. Everyone got out and got their bag. We all carried our own bags and started our way up the mountain. My legs started to hurt pretty quickly. They were stiff from sitting in that awkward position I was sitting in. I was determined to carry my pack all by myself, though. We walked until we reached a stream. We all decided take a break and stretch our legs. I immediately went to Papyrus. I desperately wanted to play with someone.

"Papyrus!"

"YES HUMAN?" Asked Papyrus. He was rubbing his stiff neck with his hand.

"I CHALLENGE YOU!" I splashed water into his face. I was standing ankle deep in the water. Papyrus was just close enough for me to splash him. I was giggling like a little kid.

"DO YOU DARE CHALLENGE THE GREAT PAPYRUS!?" Papyrus was laughing. He ran into the water after me. "ILL GET YOU TINY HUMAN!" He threw off his boots and jumped into the cool water of the stream.

"Nooooooo!"

I was running away from Papyrus as we were splashing each other with all of our might. Papyrus would splash me, I'd move a few feet back and splash him more. It was a blast. We were soaked by the time we were tired out. We were still giggling. Papyrus lifted me onto his shoulders.

"AHHHRG! THE HUMAN HAS DEFEATED THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" We were both smiling.

We looked over to Mom and Anthony. Mom was trying her best to hold back her laughter. Anthony did not look very impressed. We ignored him. Papyrus carried me back to the bank and we changed into dry clothes. Everyone started to go again and we were off.

We made it to a clearing at the base of the mountain. It was sunset. We decided to set up camp. There was ten tents now. Seven for us, one for Anthony, one for Him, and one for the two guards that were protecting the ambassador. Undyne built a large fire and brought sitting logs out of the forrest. I had set up my tent just the way I liked it when I came out for supper. The guards and the ambassadors ate pre-made food that they brought along while the rest of us ate one of Toriel's famous pies, and berries that had started to ripen in the late spring. It was a fabulous meal.

Everyone crowded around the fire. Anthony and the Monarchs were talking business on the other side of the campfire. I was sitting next to Sans. It was a perfect night for a campfire song. I didn't have an instrument, but I knew Asgore brought a guitar with him. I went in to his tent and fished to out. I brought it back to the campfire and tested it out. It was terribly out of tune. I did my best to tune it into the right notes and started playing cords. Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys were sitting around me, trying to encourage me to sing them a song. I started plucking out the chords of my favourite song, and started to sing.

"Well you only need the light when its burning low, only miss the sun when it starts to snow. Only know you love her when you let her go. Only know you've been high when you're feeling low, only hate the road when you're missin' home. Only know you love her when you let her go... and you let her go."

I continued with the instrumental. Everyone was crowded around now, even him.

"Staring at the bottom of your glass, hopping one day you'll make a dream last but dreams come slow and they go so fast. You see her when you close your eyes, maybe one day you'll understand why everything you touch surely dies."

Everyone joined in for the chorus. Undyne sounded terrible, but it somehow worked with everyone singing along.

"But you only need the light when its burning low. Only miss the sun when it starts to snow. Only know you love her when you let her go. Only know you've been high when you're feeling low, only hate the road when you're missing home. Only know you love her when you let her go,"

I decided to stop there. The next verse was Thomas's favourite, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sing it without him singing with me. It was basically sacrilege. I put down the guitar. Everyone seemed to think I was going to move on to another song, but I was wrong.

"Staring at the ceiling in the dark, same old empty feeling in your heart 'cause love comes slow and it goes so fast." Thomas sung on without the guitar. I picked it up quickly and played where he left off. I didn't dare sing. It was his part. I remember when he first sang it to me, the verse was special to him. It drifted from his voice like a wave crashing into the sand. He had a deep, musical voice that you couldn't help but fall in love with. He continued, "Well you see her when you fall asleep, but never to touch and never to keep 'cause you loved her too much and you dived too deep." I decided to join in for the chorus. No one else sang with us.

"Cause you only need the light when its burning low. Only miss the sun when it starts to snow. Only know you love her when you let her go. Only know you've been high when you're feeling low, only hate the road when you're missing home. Only know you love her when you let her go... and you let her go."

It was a beautiful finish. We looked at each other for the first time on this entire trip. He looked almost the same. Brown hair, blue eyes, broader shoulder than before, but there was something way off about him. I looked closer. His eyes. He lost the sparkle in his eyes. Thomas had a sparkle of wonder and curiosity for as long as i could remember, but, it was gone. He looked back at me. I was afraid of what he saw. How much did I change? I shifted my gaze to my family and friends. They looked utterly shocked. They kept on looking between me and Thomas as if we just appeared right before their eyes.

"You... You sound like an angel." Toriel stammered.

"I didn't know you could sing like _that._ " Sans said, utterly amazed.

"Uhhhhhh." Anthony couldn't even speak.

"We can take suggestions!" I said. I looked over and gave Thomas a wink. He still looked a little sad, but he agreed. It kept them from asking questions anyway.

For the rest of the night we sang. Some of my favourites were, "This is gospel" "Hold back the river" "Welcome home son" and "Little talks" We wrapped up the night with Amazing Grace and went to bed. I snuggled in to my sleeping bag. I felt hurt. I knew that i brought him way more pain then I was worth. He must have thought I had died. Now I'm back, with a new family. I didn't even visit him to tell him I was okay. I felt like a terrible person. I wanted him to get mad, throw something, punch me, scream, _ANYTHING_ besides ignoring me. It was killing me. I could barely stand it. He refused to talk to me,. He could barely look at me. I felt like a disgusting human being. Like a stain. I fell asleep felling unworthy of love, like I deserved any sort of terrible things i could think of. It was a terrible feeling.


	13. Chapter 13

Frisk woke up on a bed of flowers.

"Hello Chara."

I knew even before they appeared that they were here. The dreams that Chara talked to me in were cold, and slightly eerie. I always woke up in a bed of golden buttercups, but they were never in the ruins where they usually were. It was strange. So far all of the Chara dreams took place in the underground. I guessed that was because their essence was linked with the underground, as well as me. I wasn't really in the mood for a lecture, so I hoped that they were going to tell me what happened, or at least fill me in on something I missed. I braced myself and sat up.

I was in Snowden, by the place the taxi boat guy drops me off when I want to fast travel. It was cold, with a breeze that tore through the air like a knife.

"Hello Frisk." Chara sounded sad, or maybe disappointed. Probably both.

"What are you going to tell me this time?" I asked.

"Its not a good idea to forget who your friends are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I felt threatened.

I stood in the snow ankle deep, facing Chara. I took a good look at them. They were standing about 30 feet away. Their voice was caught in the wind half of the time, making it hard to hear. Chara was limping on their left leg, their hair was unbrushed and crazy, they had huge bags under their eyes, and they had their arms crossed as if they were very cold. It was a strange sight, seeing someone so broken, but standing so tall.

"What happened to you?" I asked, concerned.

"Which do you want answered first?" They replied sarcastically.

"Whats wrong?"

"Im loosing influence on you. My "spirit" is getting very weak trying to talk to you." They gave me a quick glance before continuing, "Im not making you do anything. Im not even trying to temp you anymore, so I'm fading. Im being forgotten because you don't need me anymore. The whole reason why I've started haunting people is gone. Not all people are bad, and all people can saved if given the chance. Ive lost all purpose for being." They finished.

"Does it hurt?" I asked curiously.

"Not at all. Listen, its hard to even talk to you, let alone control your dreams, so can you just shut up for a few minutes?" They said trying to steer the conversation away from them.

"Okay." I replied. I could take a hint.

"You have to be careful. Bringing up stuff that happened in the past can be dangerous. You need to focus on your goal: freeing the monster race from the underground. Everything else can be figured out later."

"Okay." I knew exactly what Chara meant by that. They didn't want me to stress over Thomas. He was from the past and I have to stop dwelling on it. I knew it was going to be hard, after what I did, but if I didn't I could miss something important. I sighed.

"You need to pay attention to Sans." Chara continued, "He's hiding something. It could be important. And one more thing, be careful of Flowey. He's still a powerful enemy. You need to be on your guard." Chara finished talking.

"Chara?"

"What?" They sounded exhausted.

"Will you tell me what I did?" I was still concerned about that. They still hadn't told me.

"I've decided that its best you didn't know." Chara put flatly.

We were standing far away. I walked towards Chara, and gave them a hug. Chara hugged back, and then disappeared in a blast of mist. I was still standing in the snow, cold. My dream wasn't ending, so I decided to sit down and think.

I started thinking about love. I didn't know how I felt about Sans. He was great! He always made me smile, and knew when to listen and when to joke around. He was sensitive to other peoples emotions. But, he was hiding too many things. He wasn't being honest. I wondered if he was alright. He was always sleeping or cracking jokes, but when he was doing neither he had a short temper, he would disappear, and sometimes he was just straight up sad. I couldn't tell. Maybe i'd find out later in my life. Thomas made me feel unworthy. We had so much in common, and he loved me once. I wondered if he ever would again. A cold breeze cut through my clothes. I shivered. I decided two things. Sans needed a friend, and Thomas would need to decide for himself weather we deserved a second chance. I decided to lie in the snow. I closed my eyes.

I woke up in my sleeping bag.


	14. Chapter 14

Frisk woke up in a sweaty sleeping bag.

*Sigh*

Another day of awkwardness and anxiety. Great. I lied there thinking about all of the things that are going to happen today. We're going to reach the underground, and that's the only thing I know for sure thats going to happen. I got out of my sleeping bag and picked out what to wear. I settled for a dark green shirt, black sweat pants, my classic sweater, and my necklace. I took a closer look at it. It was glowing faintly. It always did that whenever I was in or close to to the Underground. I laced up my black hiking boots and stepped outside.

Mom was making waffles. Papyrus was complaining that she wouldn't let him help with anything.

"BUT I ASSURE YOU, QUEEN TORIEL, I WONT SET THEM ON FIRE!" Papyrus begged.

"Papyrus, I'm not entirely certain that you are correct." Toriel put simply.

I giggled. After that I wandered around to see what everyone else was doing. Undyne was chopping firewood, Alphys was drawing up more plans; they were about the celebration at the castle, Sans was asleep, Asgore was talking with Anthony, and Thomas was no where in sight. Thank god. I walked up to the campfire. It was about two feet high, and very warm. I sat down on the log closest to Toriel.

"Good morning." I said happily to Mom.

"Good morning, my child. Would you like a waffle?" Toriel asked. She seemed to be in a good mood. Now that we were on the road she seemed to have all of her stress melt away. It was nice to see her determined again.

Mom placed a few waffles onto my plate. I sat on the log and wolfed down my plate. It was delicious. I gave my plate back to Toriel and went over to my tent to start packing my bag. The sun was warm, but the over all temperature was cold; the wind cut through you like ice. I was happy I was wearing my sweater. I walked over to my tent and started to plan out how I was going to fit everything into my duffle bag. I decided to put on my other sweat pants underneath my other sweat pants to make room. I folded my sleeping bag as tightly as i could and squished my pillow inside after it. Everything fit well enough that i could easily zip up my duffle bag. I was satisfied with my work.

After I had finished packing I grabbed my duffle bag, swung it over my shoulder, and headed over to the camp fire. There was a pile of food, bags, and other supplies stacked about 50 feet from the fire. I placed my beg at the foot of the heap and decided to get on with the day.

A few hours later everyone was packed up and ready to go. It took about an hour to get Sans up, but he wasn't exactly cooperating. Papyrus volunteered to carry him so we wouldn't be slowed down. I was grateful. We started to head up towards the mountain. I was walking beside Undyne. She was carrying my bag for me. She said it was "a great workout" but, I'm pretty sure she just wanted to help me out. Asgore kept up a conversation with Anthony, and when he was tired of talking Mom usually took over. My feet started to ache. The way up the mountain is way harder than going down. The narrow trail was steep and almost impassible at times. I had to be thrown over tall ledges a few times because i couldn't reach. It was still cold outside. Everyone was shivering, including Undyne. After a while we decided to stop for lunch.

Mom had made cold turkey sandwiches for lunch. They didn't taste great, but they were filling. I glanced over at Thomas. He looked lonely. I sighed and walked over to him.

"Hey. Mind if i sit down?" I asked. Thomas looked up suspiciously. I wasn't surprised he was acting like that. He sighed and moved over so I could sit down. "How's the trip so far?" I asked reproachfully.

"Its okay, I guess." He glanced away. "I haven't really talked to anyone besides you." He stated, kinda sadly.

"Hey, they just need to warm up to you; thats all." I said. I realized that what he said was true. None of the monsters had even said a word to him until the bonfire last night. I needed to fix that.

We talked a little bit after that; we mostly complained how much our feet hurt. It wasn't very long until we started walking again. I wandered over towards Alphys. I knew that she'd be the best person suited for talking to Thomas. She was quirky, and had just enough awkwardness to make her relatable. The confidence lessons with Papyrus have also been paying off. Alphys was writing something in her notepad. I walked over so I was right beside her; which wasn't an easy task on the narrow pathway.

"Hey Alphys!" I said warmly

"Oh, hey! What's up?" She said while stuffing the yellow notepad into her backpack.

"Can I ask you a favour?" I asked simply.

"Yeah, sure. what do you need?" She said a little nervous.

"Can you talk to Thomas? He's a little lonely."

"Oh! Thats all?" She said, obviously relieved.

"Yup." I said cheerfully.

Alphys walked over to Thomas. It sounded like they hit it off quite well. From what i could hear, they talked about anime; even thought he wasn't really into it, and the geography of the mountain. I was glad to see them get along so well.

We were starting to get close to the barrier. it was nightfall and everyone was freezing. It was getting really dark, and there were clouds so we got no light from the moon. We all decided that we'd have to wait until morning to go the rest of the way. We all had to sleep in a long line along the path; there was no room to make camp. The path was lined one by one with people, and no room to roll over. If you did, you would fall off the path and down about 30 feet into trees. I slept fully clothed in-between Sans and Undyne. It was absolutely freezing. My feet felt like they were going to turn into ice, and my ears felt like they were going to fall off at any moment.

I sat up shivering. I shook Sans's foot. I didn't want to bother him, but he'd been sleeping all day so I figured it wouldn't be so bad. He sat up sleepily, and looked over at me.

"Whats wrong, kiddo?" He asked a little concerned.

"I can't sleep. Too cold." I said shivering. Sans seemed to be regarding my statement, as if he was deciding what to do about it.

"You get cold?" he asked dumbly. I didn't respond, I shivered.

"Come here." Sans reached out his hand. I crawled over to him. He sat up fully in his sleeping bag. Sans sat me down so I was sitting right in front of him, facing Undyne. He pulled me closer so I was sitting in-between his legs. Sans then wrapped his arms around me and rested his head on top of mine.

He was actually really warm. It was nice to sit there with him holding me. Sans was like a jumbo heat pack. We sat there for a few minutes until I was warm.

"You good now, kiddo?" He asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Sans." I said, gratefully.

"Your welcome." I crawled back into my own sleeping bag, and Sans lied down and went to sleep. I soon followed after him.

I woke up at dawn. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and rolled it up as best I could. I stretched and rubbed my sore neck. The sunset was a beautiful display of orange, pink, and green. A few birds started to chirp happily in the distance. It seemed like it was going to be a good day. The ground was frozen, but the sun was warm, and there wasn't even a breath of wind.

Everyone was awake about twenty minuets later. We were all tired and just wanted to make it to the Underground. We all started hiking with a light breakfast of apples. We made it to the barrier at around 7:00 am. We all looked at it in awe.

The barrier was lined with crystals of purple, green, and ocean-blue. They captured the sunlight and reflected it into a swarm of colours that reflected onto the cave walls like shimmering ocean water. We admired the lights for about a minute, then Asgore decided to make a speech.

"Today marks the day that two species will, once again, live together in a beneficial harmony. Monster kind and Human kind alike are excited for this relation ship. We will welcome you all with open arms, and host you as honoured guests." Asgore was quite happy with his little speech. Anthony just rolled his eyes and walked around him while muttering, "Lets get this over with."

All monster kind held it's breath. This was the beginning of a new era. Weather it end in peace, or horrific destruction of the monster kind.


	15. Chapter 15

Frisk entered the underground.

The room was eerie. It was the last place I saw Flowey. Seeing it completely empty felt... wrong. Everyone started to come inside. We made our way past the first room and headed to the hallway. Asgore led us through a huge, wooden door that I hadn't noticed before, and led us down another hallway. As we passed I caught glimpses of a large garden, a glowing room, the huge kitchen, and then, finally, we entered a room at the end of the hall.

The entrance had a large, gothic archway, and the actual room was circular with a single echo flower in a circular flower bed. It was pretty; the large room was lit with yellow, blue, and green crystals mounted on the wall by brass holders, the flowerbed was well kept, besides the fact that there was only one flower inside it. There were four rounded, wooden benches wrapped around the flower bed, and the floor was made of polished, black marble.

We all gazed at the room in awe. Well, besides Toriel and Asgore. The room had eight doors around it's perimeter. The doors were made of some sort of red wood that was tinted purple in the light; they looked heavy. There was a mosaic of the underground's history painted intricately on the walls, about three feet high, and in amazing detail. We all wandered around the room, admiring the obvious effort it must have took to make it so beautiful.

"Ah yes. This is the castle's guest room. You may all choose a room to sleep in. The dining hall is just through the kitchen. We welcome you to use the facilities at any time you wish. The bathroom is just past the garden, and the throne room is through the two halls and to the right. Dinner is at 7:00. We are all tired so i suggest you get some rest. The celebrations start tomorrow!" Asgore said in an obviously forced cheery attitude. He sighed and finished with, "I am very tired. I request not to be disturbed."

I walked around and peeped into every room. The first room had a roman numeral one engraved into the stone wall above the door. It was lit with baby blue crystals. The walls had hearts engraved in the stone across the entire room at chest height. The rest of the room had mosaics of monsters waiting on children, reading, and fitting together pieces of a puzzle. They were all painted with varying colours of light blue. The bed was queen sized, with white sheets and pillows, the bed frame was made of a birch-y wood, and a simple chest was at the foot of the bed frame, made out of the same light wood.

The second room had the roman numeral two over the door way. It also had engraved hearts in the walls at the same, chest high height. The room was lit with pinky-purple crystals. The walls had painted mosaics on the walls on top and underneath the heart engravings. They depicted a monster being hurt in some sort of battle; they had an arrow in their shoulder. They fell to their knees, and then stood up again, proud and tall, only to be shot down and killed. The mosaic was painted in deep purples, and pinks. The bed had the same white bed spread, but the wood was darker, and there was a simple six drawer dresser at the foot of the bed with the same dark wood.

The third room had the roman numeral three engraved above the door, with the same heart engravings on the walls. The room was lit with green crystals, and had a different mosaic painted with a wide array of greens. The mosaic had child monsters playing together, and adults helping the elderly carry groceries, and a family extending their home to someone in need. The room had an over all warm feeling about it. The bed frame was made of a light wood, with a long dresser against the bed frame.

The fourth room had the roman numeral four engraved above the doorway. It was lit with dark blue crystals and had the same heart engravings, and white bed spread. The mosaic on the walls showed monsters standing up for each other, protecting the small, helping the homeless, feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, and serving the king. It was inspiring to look at. It made me feel like I could do anything if I tried. The bed frame was made of a yellow tinted wood, with a chest at the foot of the bed.

The fifth room had the roman numeral five engraved above the doorway. This room also had the same engravings and white bed spread. This mosaic was interesting. It was painted with yellows, and very light greens, and depicted a royal court in session, with one person facing the king, with the rest of the court behind him, waiting to be addressed, but the rest of the mosaic had images of monsters standing up to others, and having a genuine respect to authority; such as a masked member of the royal guard being addressed by the king. The bed frame was made of a dark brown, with a long dresser at the foot of the bed.

The sixth room had the roman numeral six engraved above the door frame. The usual engraving and bed spread was on the bed. This room was lit by orange crystals, rare in the underground. The mosaic was beautiful. It was all painted in a wide array of orange. It had orange rolls that looked like waves above the heart engravings; the mosaic showed a battle scene. There were many things to look at. Monster medics, helping the wounded of both sides equally, soldiers fighting to the death with spears, long swords, and magic, someone carrying the wounded and risking their own lives doing so, and so many other admirable acts to be able to see without staring for hours on end. The bed frame was made of an almost-black brown, with a chest at the foot of the bed.

The seventh room had the roman numeral seven engraved over the door way. This one was very different from the others. The bedspread was black, and the heart engravings were upside down. The mosaic on the walls were painted in white, all different sorts of greys, and blacks, illuminated by white crystals, _extremely_ rare and _expensive_ in the underground. The mosaic was huge. each figure was painted from the ceiling to the floor with the engraved upside-down hearts cutting across all of their middles. It showed one of each monster species in the underground, all joining hands. It was unifying, and would be intimidating if the calm, happy expressions were anything else but that. The bed frame was made of dark wood, and had two smaller chests on the foot of the bed. It was beautiful.

I closed the door and walked to the last door. It had the roman numeral number eight engraved above it. All of the other rooms were in chronological order, besides this one. It was in the centre of the room, right across from the entrance. I walked inside. It was lit with red crystals, I'd never seen red crystals in the underground **anywhere** but here. The room had more intricate heart engravings on all of the walls, except the one right in front of me. The mosaic had a red background, but used all of the colours in the previous rooms. Right in front of me there was an angel with a blue sweater and black pants defending from one of the holes to the underground. Their wings spread outward, covering almost the entire wall and had the edge of it's feathers spread over to the other two walls on either side of it. The angel was holding a bright, red heart in its hands. The red heart was almost hovering right above their open palms. There were six other hearts spread across the mosaic. Purple, green, orange, light blue, yellow, and dark blue. The hearts were spread across the walls with a smoky vapour with their colour being pulled towards the red heart, almost unifying them. I took a step closer and saw one last detail: there was a huge upside-down heart right under the angel's feet. It was absolutely breathtaking. I hardly payed attention to the bed and chest. I knew in an instant what all of the other hearts meant. They were the hearts of the lost children and the heart of all monsters being unified by one thing: Determination. As I walked passed the bed to get a closer look my suspicions were confirmed. Underneath the mosaic was the simple word "Determination" engraved into the stone.

*This fills you with Determination*

I must have been staring for a while because Thomas walked in to see if I was alright.

"Hey are yo- woah." He exclaimed.

"Im done looking. Sorry." I said, a little embarrassed.

"No, no. I was just going to ask you what room you want." He said distracted.

I walked out of the room, brushing passed the still daze Thomas. I was still pretty dazed and tired myself. I grabbed my yellow duffle bag from the bench and dragged to into room eight. I dumped the contents of my duffle into the right chest and flopped on to my bed. I whispered softly to the lights, "Hey I'm trying to sleep. Can you turn off please?" I asked the lights softly. To my surprise, they actually responded. I wiggled into the covers and was asleep in seconds.

I woke up a few hours later. The lights were glowing dimly, illuminating the mosaics in a comforting, white glow. I swung my legs over the bed. I felt much better. At any rate, I wasn't stiff anymore. I changed into a different set of clothes, identical to the ones I had on, and went outside.

No one was in the room. It was so quiet, I wondered if everyone was asleep, or left. As I approached the bench, I could hear the echo flower whispering something. I walked closer. The echo flower was whispering a message, "We all went to supper. Come to the dining room when you wake up." Then it stopped whispering.

What I didn't understand about echo flowers is that they didn't copy the voice of who said the message. They copied accents, sure, but each echo flower had its own unique voice. In a way, it was quite beautiful.

I walked down the hallway. It took me about two minutes to get to the kitchen. I turned right, walked straight through the kitchen, and I was about to enter the dining room, when I hesitated. I could hear shouting coming from the dining room. It sounded like Anthony was having a full blown argument with Undyne, and it was not going well. I decided to listen in for a few seconds.

"There is no way in HELL we're doing that!"

"WE NEED TO BE SURE THAT THE PEOPLE WILL BE SAFE!"

"There is NO WAY WE ARE GOING TO GET RID OF PEOPLE WHO ARE JUST AN INCONVENIENCE! THEY'RE MONSTERS TOO!"

"THATS RIGHT THEY ARE _MONSTERS._ MAYBE YOU ARE JUST AS MUCH A MONSTER THEN YOU ARE A FIGHTER."

"I AM BOTH YOU NIT TWAT!"

"I meant a monster as in a HIDEOUS CREATURE THAT DOES NOTHING UNLESS IT BENEFITS THEM!"

"THAT'S WHY YOU'RE DOWN HERE! TO MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT YOU **HUMANS** CAN USE US WITHOUT GETTING KILLED. AND THEN YOURE GOING TO BLAME IT ON US IF ONE OF YOU DOES DIE!"

I decided that if these two kept on fighting like that we'd be doomed before we had even started any of the celebrations. I marched right into the room and sat down beside Undyne.

The dining room was simple. It was huge, with a big, long, wooden table going across the centre of the room. There must have been fifty seats around the table. There was a purple tapestry hanging from the far wall with the Dremmur family crest stitched in white onto it. There was a fireplace along one of the walls to help heat the room, and a gigantic chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

When I walked into the room, all of the conversations and fighting stopped. I didn't really care; I was hungry and tired. They were serving snail stew, [ew.] an iceberg lettuce salad, and apple pie. I filled my plate as high as I could, and wolfed it down in seconds. The apple pie wasn't as good as Mom's butterscotch pie, but it was still tasty.

When I looked up, everyone was staring at me. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Do I have something on my face?" I asked, hoping to ease the tension.

"heheheHehEHAHAHAHAHA!" Sans laughed. "HAHAHAHA, *wheeze* HAHA *snort* I- Hahahe. You, y- *wheeze* You have your dinner on your face." I could feel my cheeks burning and my ears turn red. "Oh my _gawd!_ hehahahhh."

Sans finally stopped laughing. At least everyone felt more comfortable. I did not.

I waited until everyone had finished eating before going back to bed. I was still exhausted and needed a break from all of the drama. I changed into my night shirt/gown and crawled into bed. I didn't want to sleep quite yet, so I decided to look at all of the monster species on the mosaic. I thought it was a little funny how there wasn't any bone types, but I didn't think on it for too long. Pretty soon my eyes were heavy, and I was falling asleep.

I was almost asleep when I heard the door creak open. It was Mom.

"Hey, Mom." I sat up on my bed. Toriel sat down by my feet and started admiring the mosaics.

"This one was Asriel's favourite. He said it was like seeing all of his friends in one place." She sighed and turned towards me. "Frisk, Im sorry but-" She sighed again. "Im sorry, child, but I don't think that the monsters and humans are going to be able to co exist. I was reading a lot of books on the over world. One thing that was the same in all of their history books is that they will do anything to get out of doing work for themselves, even going as far an enslaving people to get what they want. I, I wouldn't be surprised if this is how its going to turn out." Toriel looked like she was going to cry. Her voice stopped being even and calm, to a choppy, shaky voice. "So, so I want, t, to know if you're go, going to stay with me, or, or-"

I put my hand on her shoulder. She looked over at me. Her eyes were puffy and red, threatening to let all of her extra tears stream down her face.

"Mom," I hesitated to make sure she was listening, "Im never going to leave you. Ever. I promise."

Mom swooped down and gave me a big hug. "Oh my darling, I love you _so_ much." Mom kissed me good night and was on her way out the door, when she stopped and turned back to add one last thing, "We all love you." She walked out and closed the door behind her.

I watched the ceiling for a few minutes. I felt loved. I loved my Mom. And Papyrus, and Sans, and Undyne, and Alphys, and Flowey, and Metteton, and Nastablook, and the Temmies, I think, and Monster Kid, and the Dogs, and even Asgore, a little bit. I loved all of the monsters. And they loved me. I whispered to the lights to shut off, and went to sleep.

 ***Big chapter coming up!***


	16. Chapter 16

Frisk woke up in a messy bed.

I was really thirsty. It was probably about two in the morning. My throat felt like it was on fire. I ran out of my bed as fast as I could, out the door, and sprinted as fast as my little legs could carry me to get a glass of water. I couldn't reach the glasses. I resorted to drinking from the tap like a dog. I shoved my face into the running water and drank as much as I could without drowning. I felt much better, and a little wet.

I walked back to the room. It took a while because my night gown was sticking to my legs, but I got there eventually. Sans was whispering to the echo flower on the left bench. He was wearing a blue T-shirt and pink pyjama pants. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he looked forlorn.I walked closer. He didn't seem to notice me. The echo flower looked like it shared Sans's mood, which i'd never seen before.

"They left. They just, left."

*The echo flower repeated Sans's words.*

"Ive never been this far in a timeline before. I don't know how this one ends. Im scared, to be honest with you."

*The echo flower repeated Sans.

"I wish this would just be over. If we're just going to keep going, then why are we putting up with this crap? It could all be over in seconds if the King would give the order. but no."

*The echo flower repeated Sans's words.*

"If they're going to reset, why haven't they done it already? Why would they put everyone through so much pain? Maybe they just can't control it. Yeah; that sounds like a reasonable explanation."

*The echo flower repeated Sans's words.*

"But its not the truth."

*The echo flower repeated Sans's words*

Sans started sobbing. He stopped quickly afterwards, and looked at the flower in despair. "I won't be able to save anyone this time either, will I?" His words felt like they were ripping my heart in half. It was me. I did this.

In a sudden bout of despair, I collapsed onto the ground, crying. I couldn't hear much besides the sound of blood rushing in my ears. Sans noticed me the moment I hit the ground. He whirled his head around and looked like he was going to attack the person who heard him, but when he saw me the mist floating from his left eye faded and he ran over to me in a state of panic.

"Hey, hey, hey. Its okay, its okay. Shit. I didn't mean for you to hear me, not that I meant what what I said, I mean I did, but thats not the point. Oh my god. What have I done? Oh I'm such an idiot. I didn't see you, I was going to tell you, actually I wasn't, but... Oh I'm so sorry." Sans said absolutely panicked.

I looked up at Sans. He was sweating,and crying, blue gross sweat and blue tears. I couldn't really tell which was which. I did not feel any better; if anything I felt worse. Sans was crying because of me, i was crying because Sans was crying because of me. It was a huge mess. I couldn't stop crying. I felt absolutely terrible. I caused so much pain to the one person that could feel it, the reasons behind what I did. He doesn't know. I kept sobbing and sobbing.

Sans got himself half pulled together, "Hey, its okay." He picked me up and carried me to my room.

Sans plopped me onto my bed. I immediately started hugging and crying into my pillow to muffle my sadness. Sans was looking at me as if I had just turned to dust right before his eyes. I couldn't console him in this state. I felt even more terrible then I already did.

"Kid, look I'm fine," He was lying. "Okay, Im not fine, but I'd be better if you'd stop crying." He looked at me as if he actually meant it. I slowed my sobs to uneven, shake breaths. "Better. I guess I better come clean." He sighed and look away, ashamed. "I know about the other timelines, I know about the neutral endings, and I- I even know about the genocide route." He took a long shaky breath. "I won't get into how I know, because I'm tired. And a big ol' lazy bones. I don't blame you for what happened, I know it wasn't you, but that doesn't mean it didn't matter. I meant what I'd said to the echo flower. Im scared of you. All of this, friendship and family, can all be undone the moment you feel like calling it quits. Im also terrified about what's going to happen to the monsters. What I _can_ tell, is that it ain't good." He sighed. I wasn't too sure if he was going to continue or not, but he did. "Ive been through all of my friend and family dying 543 times. 543. Yes I counted. It takes a toll on your self esteem, and not to mention your sanity. Im sorry you had to hear that. Im really, really, _really_ sorry."

Sans was shaking. I still felt horrible, especially now that I knew the reason why Sans hadn't trusted me in the first place. He was not alright. If anything he was horribly, terribly broken inside. I made a silent vow that I'd be by his side; that I'd be the one he could turn to when he was bad. If he didn't have a friend like that before, he had one now.

*This fills you with Determination.*

"I did this." I whispered more to myself than to Sans.

"No you d-"

"Yes I did. Its my fault you're miserable, it's my fault you know about the other timelines, its my fault that there are other timelines in the first place, and I've done nothing but make it harder on you." Sans looked up. "Its my fault. Its _all_ my fault. So I need to make it right."

"No you don't it o-"

"Its not okay. Quit saying it's okay if it isn't. Will you let me make up for what Ive done?"

"I don't understand." To be fair, he did look legitimately confused.

"Sans you're not okay. I think you need a friend who _you_ can lean on for a change."

Sans look at me like he was going to cry again. I leaned over and gave him a hug. Sans pulled a death grip on my back. I couldn't breathe. I hugged back equally hard.

Sans left the room. It felt forced, but I didn't want Thomas or Anthony to wake me up and find Sans sleeping beside me, so i figured it was for the best. I crawled back into bed. I fell asleep the moment I hit the pillow.

I woke up. It was probably still pretty early, but there was no way I was going to go back to sleep. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed a little too quickly and fell face first onto the floor. "ow." I stood up and walked over to my chest. There were two outfits layed over the chests. One was a formal tux with a light purple dress shirt with a dark purple tie, and a purple dress that came down to my knees, with the Dremmur family crest embroidered on the chest in white thread. Now I had to decide what to wear. I always thought it was weird how people referred to me as "They or Them" but i never questioned it. I put on the dress. It was frilly, and swished just the way I liked it. I never wore gender specific clothes. They were always hand-me-downs from my siblings, and my sisters refused to give me anything girly. My hair was cut short so I wouldn't need anything to style it. Now that I'm in the underground I got to choose what to wear and how to dress. Cool! My hair had gotten longer since my fall. I wondered if... A few minutes later I had my hair braided, my dress pulled on, and my black hiking boots pulled over my feet. I looked great. I looked different. Oh no.

I walked outside and closed the door behind me. Undyne just got out of the room she shared with Alphys. She hadn't seen me yet. I couldn't decide whether to run or just get it over with. I decided to run. I sprinted to the dining room as fast as I could. Luckily, only Mom was eating breakfast. She glanced up at me, then back to her plate; and then she glanced back up and freaked out.

"Oh. My. God. Frisk?!" Mom said in absolute shock.

"Thanks Mom."

"Y-you look lovely, Frisk!" she exclaimed, trying, but failing to mask her surprise. "I-I'm just- ummm. Eating."

"Can I have french toast?" I said trying to change the subject.

"YES! oh, I mean, yes."

"Thanks Mom." I gave her a slightly agitated smile. I think she got the hint.

I sat there as someone started to come in to the dining room. I refused to look anywhere but my plate and the half done french toast. I was determined to stare at the plate until it did something. It didn't do anything. I decided to look up.

So far only Sans was here. He was staring at me in complete dis-belief, his jaw looked like it would fall off at any moment, and his eyes looked like little peepholes in his sockets. It was uncomfortable to be look at like _that._

"Hi."

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm?" He started to look at me up and down. I tried to imagine that he was looking at me because I looked beautiful, but it did not help at all. I flicked a grape into his mouth. He started to choke on the grape. I sprinted over and kicked him in the back. He coughed out the grape. Sans seemed to have regained his senses.

"Good morning. Yes, I am a girl. No this is not weird." I said more to myself than to anyone else.

"H- Hi." Sans sputtered out.

I walked back to my breakfast and ate it as fast as I could without getting it all over my face. I didn't want to move. I looked over at Mom. I gave her my best "help me" expression. She got the hint and started a conversation with Sans.

"How was your sleep? I bet you slept like the dead!" She smiled as best as she could. It looked painful.

"It was alright." Sans answered, still looking directly at me.

"Welp, I'm going to change!" I exclaimed.

"Wait?! No, no. Im just being rude. Yo-You look great, Frisk." Sans said.

Well that settled it. There was no way I'd get away with changing now. I sighed and got up from the table.

I decided to go over to the echo flower and stare at it until they started to talk to me. I walked slowly over to the guest room. the first person who walked out of their room was Alphys. She stared at me for a really long time, and looked me up and down until was sure her eyes would fall out of her skull.

"Hi"

"OHMY GOD! YOU LOOKLIKESOMETOTALLYAWESOMEBADASSFIGHTERPRINCESS! ALLYOUNEEDISAHUGESWORDORMAGICALPOWERSANDYOU'DBETHEBESTCHARACTERTOEVERPASSTHROUGHTHEAMIMEWORLDS!"

I ran up to Alphys and gave her a hug. "Thanks" Alphys went off to breakfast a few minutes later after we discussed which anime character i'd be in Kissy Cutie. After she left I stared at the echo flower. I didn't want to hear what it would say, i was afraid it would be about Sans. I kept waiting.

About twenty minutes later Papyrus came out of his room. He looked at me in confusion for a few moments.

"HUMAN, IS THAT YOU?"

"yes, papyrus."

"OH MY GOD! YOU LOOK ADORABLE. I LIKE YOUR PURPLE DRESS! I LOVE THE WAY IT TWIRLS. ADMITTEDLY I WAS CONFUSED AT WHAT GENDER YOU WERE, BUT I KNEW WHAT YOU WERE ALL ALONG!"

"Papyrus, that doesn't make se-"

"HUSH HUMAN! THOUGH I DONT QUITE UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD WEAR YOUR HIKING BOOTS WITH YOUR FRILLY DRESS. IT DOESN'T MATTER. NOW THAT I'VE SEEN YOUR FANCY CLOTHES I MUST SHOW YOU MINE! THEY ARE VERY, VERY COOL."

"Thats okay, Papyrus. You better wait until after you're done breakfast anyways." Papyrus jogged off to breakfast after a little convincing that, 1: I actually was a girl, 2: His clothes were cool enough to wait until after breakfast, and 3: hiking boots were 10X as comfortable as they looked.

I didn't mind being mis gendered all that much; What bothered me was that everyone had to make a big deal about it. It didn't make any sense. It doesn't matter if i was a guy or girl. I'd still be me. I was tired.

I was busy staring at the echo flower, when i looked over and saw Undyne. She had a towel wrapped around her chest; it looked like she had just gotten out of the shower. She was wearing an expression of absolue shock.

"FRISK?!"

"Hello, its me." I was tired of everything and everyone, so i started singing.

"WHAT THE FUCK? SINCE WHEN WERE YOU A GIRL? I THOUGHT YOU WERE A GUY?! WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? KJHBGOAIYGBRJKLAKHBRJ, RBHAG ;TH AGBJRV RUILKB GEHU T;WIEUHG ;EORGH ;AOEH E;OURGH E;OUR HE;OU ;OH;EUH ;OK BOUEKYRGFKWUYRTRUTHVRCFUVYJRTDYBTKGFNDRIUKHN"

"I wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet-"

"TO MEET WHAT? IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE YOU ARENT TELLING ME?! WHY DID YOU GO ON A DATE WITH ALPHYS?! SHES MINE! DID I SERIOUSLY GET MY ASS WHOOPED BY A THIRTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL?!"

"To go over everything, you know that time's supposed to heal ya, but I ain't done much healing."

"ARE YOU HURT? DID YOU GET SOME SORT OF SURGERY? WHEN?! YES ID LIKE TO GO OVER EVERYTHING! EVERY FRIGGING LAST DETAIL! STOP SINGING!"

"HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE. I MUST HAVE CALLED A THOUSAND TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMES"

"WHAT THE FUCK?! WHAT THE FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK?! KJHFELIUWSGTBIQUWEJGQ3IULGLEI UYJHGEFIWLUSGFBIW"

I gave Undyne a few seconds to settle down. It must have been traumatic. I wasn't sorry.

"ARE YOU DONE YET?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. She immediately fell silent. There was a painfully awkward silence as Undyne finally understood why I was pissed off. She turned bright red with embarrassment when she realized what she had done.

"Im sorry." She said plainly.

"Thats okay."

Thomas walked out of his room just then. It must have been a strange sight seeing me in a dress, and Undyne in a towel. I felt like I wanted to disappear in that moment. I waited for his response.

"You're a girl?" He asked.

"yes."

"Sweet. That has answered a lot of questions. Thanks."

"Like what?" I asked.

"I AM GOING TO LEAVE NOW!" Undyne yelled, and then left as fast as she could.

"Well I was kinda wondering if I was very gay, or just plain whatever. So ya know, that helped a little."

"Well ok then."

"Are you going to be my date to the formal celebration?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Uhhhhhhhhhh"

"Don't worry, you have two days to decide." Thomas turned, and left towards the dining room.

Well that was awkward. I went into my room and flopped my face onto my pillow.

The first celebration was in Snowdin. It was a casual celebration with dancing, and a DJ. I was excited to see everyone there! I hoped they'd still recognize me.

Oh no. I still had the snowman piece in my pocket. I sure hope he'd like a pretty melted piece of his body to be reattached to his, limbs. Gross.

We were getting ready to leave. It was 3:45 and everyone was waiting on Papyrus to get out of his room to leave. Papyrus said he wanted to get his fancy, cool outfit done up perfectly. Its been two hours since he first put it on.

"Papyrus! We are going to leave your sorry butt here if you don't get out this instant! Thats an order!" Undyne yelled at Papyrus through the door.

"OH ALRIGHT THEN."

Papyrus stepped out of his room. He had the same outfit on as his cool dude clothes, except he was wearing a bowtie and a tux jacket.

"HOW DO I LOOK?" Papyrus asked.

"Great. now lets go." Said Sans. He was itching to get back to Grilby's. He hadn't been there since we left the barrier. I wondered if he was suffering from ketchup withdrawal.

We all walked down to the Boat Man.

"Hello there. Care for a ride?" He asked.

"Yes. To Snowdin please." Asgore replied.

It was a very cramped ten minute boat ride. I was wearing a different dress than before. It was blue with a purple sash around my waist that tied in a bow in the back of the dress. It had the Dremmur family crest on the chest. It went down to my ankles and wasn't as frilly as the other one. It was long, sleek, and twirled very easily. The sleeves were made of lace and fit tightly to my skin. Undyne did my hair. She french braided along my hairline and pulled it all into a high ponytail with a few shorter braids twisted inside. Above the dress I wore a dark purple cape with a hood. It was made of silk, but was very warm. I felt like a million bucks.

Sans was by far the most surprised, and impressed with my second dress. He said it was, "Very flattering."

The ride was very uncomfortable. Everyone was stepping onto each others toes. It was eventually over and we all unloaded onto the cold river bank.

The party was in the town square, in-between the library and Grilby's. Sans left immediately to go and get some ketchup, The stage was set up by the ice fox's workshop. It had loads of instruments on stands, and a DJ platform. Nastablook was DJ-ing. I gave him a quick wave. He blushed and disappeared. Oops. I told Toriel that I was going to catch up with a few of the monsters that i had met on my way through the underground. She gave me permission, and I left. I wandered around until i found somebody. Snow drake bumped into me. He didn't recognize me at first, but pretty soon he realized who I was.

"Hey, Snowdrake!"

"Hey, Frisk! Do you want to hear some of the jokes I've written since you left?"

"Sure."

"Okay, this is a knock knock joke. You have to start it."

"Okay. Knock knock?"

"Who's there?" The snow drake said with an elfish grin.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

I left him and headed out to go and return my snowman piece. It was calming being away from the group for a while. As I walked my cape flowed in waves behind me. I started to run out of half excitement, and half anticipation for what he was going to say. I walked up, and the snow man was gone. I was devastated, until I found a pink note where the snowman once stood. It read, "Hello, Frisk. By now you've come back from the surface and found me gone. Im telling you that I had just given myself to everyone until there was nothing left. Im not gone, Im simply on an adventure. signed-SNOWMAN" I placed my piece of wet snowman into the snow, and rolled it around in the other snow until i had a ball the size of my head. Maybe someone would re-make the snowman with all of his adventures intact.

I walked back to the party and started to wander around again. Grilby was serving free hot chocolate. I went inside and sat at my favourite bar stool. Sans was sitting beside me with a half drunk bottle of ketchup. Grilby came by, and i ordered a medium hot chocolate. I turned so I could start a conversation with Sans. He was reading the ketchup bottle so hard I wouldn't have been surprised if it caught on fire.

"Hey, Sans!" I greeted cheerfully.

"Hi." Sans answered quickly.

"...Okay then."

Grilby gave me a piping hot mug of hot chocolate. I thanked him and headed out the door. I glanced back, only to see Sans staring at me. I pretended I didn't see that and walked out the door. It was getting dark now. It had to be below freezing, but with everybody so close it didn't seem to matter. Someone built a bonfire over by the christmas tree. The little kids were roasting marshmallows and the older kids were telling ghost stories.

I decided that I should probably find my Monster Friend. I walked towards the campfire and found him on the other side of the bonfire roasting a marshmallow. His roasting stick was duck taped to the side of his chest. Monster Kid saw me and ran over; his roasting stick fell into the flames as he ran over.

"Hi, Monster Kid!"

"Hey Frisk! I didn't know you were a girl. Cool. Whats it like on the surface?! Is it hot or cold? Do you think the humans are going to let us leave? Can I live right beside you on the surface? Please?"

"Woah! One question at a time please." I looked at Monster Kid sympathetically. I wanted those answers too. "Its hot or cold, depending on where you live. It's sort of like here, if you live in Hotland, it's hot, or in Snowdin it's cold." I avoided the other questions entirely.

I walked away from Monster kid and headed over to the stage. Nastablook was setting up for another song and Mettaton was performing some sort of, dance?, on the stage. It was obviously supposed to be a dance for Mettaton X, and he wasn't doing it very well without legs. After he broke down, Alphys was able to make a few adjustments so that he could live day-to-day life as Mettaton X, but he preferred to only have his friends see that, or if he was doing a special performance. What he was doing right now, looked like he was a chicken with his head cut off.

I wondered where Anthony was. He was on the boat, but I haven't seen him since. I decided that I better track him down and make sure he wasn't being rude, or snooping. I wandered off towards the library and stepped through the door. He wasn't there. I walked out and decided to go towards Sans and Papyrus's house. I was about three-quarters way there when I saw Anthony. He was coming out from behind the house. I hesitated. It looked like he had used some sort of back door, but they didn't have a back door to their house.

"Hello, Anthony? How are you enjoying the celebration?" Anthony was so startled, he fell into a snow bank. "Are you alright?" I helped him up. He was looking from left to right to see if anyone else had seen him. "Did you get lost, or something?"

"Yes, right. I was just on my way to the library." He turned around towards Waterfall. The opposite direction of where the library was.

"Its over here!" I shouted at him.

"Oh, right." Anthony's cheeks were burning.

I noticed something in his coat pocket. They looked like blueprints and an entire notebook, seemingly filled with notes in chicken scratch writing. This writing was different from Alphas's though. It scared me a little. Why was he in Sans and Papyrus's house? I decided to just forget about it. No one would believe me anyways.

I decided to do some dancing. I wasn't going to spend my first party in the underground worried and sad. I moved towards the DJ stage. Nastablook was playing a few common two step songs. Thomas came up behind me and scared me.

"BOO!"

"Ahhh! You! Don't DO that." I turned around giggling. Thomas offered me his arm, I took it and he swooped me away onto the dance floor.

It was a lot of fun! We danced, and twirled, and spun in circles around the other dancers. Pretty soon everyone had crowded around to see the two ambassadors dance. I had forgotten how good of a dancer he was. I remembered when there was a dance in the barn a few months before I left. He spun me around and caught me just before I fell. We had finished with a dip. I was smiling so big I thought my cheeks were going to burst.

I stood back up an saw the crowd staring at us. Sans was at the front of the crowd, directly in front of us. I couldn't tell weather he was mad, or horrified. Either way, it was really weird. The crowd started in an up roar of cheers. It was exciting to see all of the monsters cheering for one pair of humans. Maybe we could live in peace after all.

I danced for a few more songs with varying monsters, and then sat down on a bench. It was late, my feet hurt, and i was really sweaty. But the glittering rocks were quite pretty tonight. The reflection of the celebration lights glittering back at us. Sans sat down beside me, and started to rock gaze too.

"They sure are pretty." He said simply.

"They sure are." I replied.

"Are you ready to go back? You're looking pretty tired, kiddo." Sans asked.

"I think I've had enough excitement for today, yes. Do you want to come with me?" I asked.

"Sure" He replied.

We walked over to the Boat Man. He was sleeping against his oar. I shot a quick smile at Sans.

"Two passages to Hotland please." I asked. The boatman woke with a start. He helped us aboard and we set off.

We were standing in an awkward silence for a minute or so. I was trying to ignore the Boat Man's awful singing. i couldn't tell what Sans was doing. We got off and started to head towards the castle.

"I know a shortcut." Sans offered. I didn't really like using shortcuts, but my feet were hurting and i didn't feel like walking all the way back to the castle.

"Sure." I took Sans hand. I closed my eyes. Suddenly it got really cold, then it was quite warm. I opened my eyes. We were right in front of the echo flower in the middle of the guest room. I turned and looked at Sans. He was trying not to look at me.

"Sans, are you alright?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm okay, but-" He turned away and sighed.

"I saw something tonight." Sans looked at me, he wanted me to continue, "I saw Anthony sneaking out of the back door to your house. He was carrying blueprints and a notebook that wasn't his." I looked at Sans.

He looked pale, if skeletons could look pale, and he started to panic.

"Oh my god. Oh no. Oh god. What did he do. What did he take. This is not good."

I grabbed Sans hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. He relaxed a little and sighed.

"This is bad."

I nodded. Anthony shouldn't be snooping around other peoples houses when they weren't around. It was wrong. Sans went to his room and shut the door, muttering something along the lines of, "Ill fix it. Ill fix this." I went over to my own bed and went to sleep, watching the crystals dim and flicker.

Frisk woke up in a bed of golden flowers.

"Great."

I sat there and waited for Chara to appear. I waited, and waited, and waited. I was at the boat launch in Snowdin, again. The snow I was sitting in was very cold, but it didn't feel real this time. I waited for Chara to appear, or at least whisper something. I decided to call her out.

"Chara?..."

*But nobody came*

Frisk woke up in a sweaty bed.

I woke up slowly. Chara was finally gone. Forever. It felt, different to have my body to myself again. I couldn't really describe it, but I felt, more in control? I crawled out of bed. I grabbed a towel from the left chest at the foot of my bed and headed towards the bathroom.

I took a long, hot shower. I washed my hair, my face, and scrubbed under my fingernails. I got out feeling fresh and clean. I wrapped my towel around my chest and carried my clothes back to my room. I changed into a pair of black sweats, a green shirt, my sweater, and my necklace. To my surprise, all of my clothes had been washed and folded in my chest. It was a little weird. I tugged on my hiking boots and headed towards the dining room.

Today there was going to be a short celebration in Hotland at around noon, and then there was going to be a formal celebration at the castle in the evening. I wasn't too excited for the one at Hotland. Anthony almost refused to come because the amalgamates were going to be attending, as well as some of the prisoners who were on good behaviour. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't show up at all.

After breakfast I went with Toriel. She had to do a few things to prepare for the formal celebration, and she wanted my help. Mom held my hand as we walked to the throne room. we started discussing decorations.

"And we should have yellow buttercup bouquets on all the tables, and red table cloths, and we should have blue..."

"Its going to be great, Mom." Toriel sighed. I could tell that she was trying to put off telling me something.

"I need to talk to you about whats going to happen." Toriel paused to think about what to say next, "If there is going to be a war, we need to teach you how to fight. I have asked Undyne to train you if the time comes." I looked at her. We both knew that something bad was going to happen. "I highly doubt that you will ever be put in harms way, and you won't if I can help it, but I want to know if you want to be taught using a weapon. You'd have to carry it around with you at all times, but at least you'd have a better shot." Toriel said this as if it was a living hell to say her thoughts out loud. It sent a shiver up my spine.

"Can I use a sword? Id also like to know how to fight with my hands as well, if I'm going to have to learn any of this at all." I said, reluctantly.

"Im so sorry dear, I- I just don't want to have to lose you." Toriel said sadly.

"Ive got through the entire underground with the royal guard chasing after me. This will be a piece of cake." I said with fake enthusiasm. We were going to lose if we started a war with the humans. Swords can't deflect bullets.

We had just arrived to Hotland, and already Anthony was complaining. I was wearing my short shorts, my blue shirt, and my necklace. Everyone else was also wearing as little as possible.

"Oh my god! Did you insufferable monsters really have to drag me all the way to this stupid party just to make me mad?!" Anthony complained.

"Shut up. You're not a fish out of water. Im broiling in this heat!" Undyne complained back.

"You must all stop this at once! The people of Hotland deserve an audience with the ambassadors as much as any other creatures." Toriel scolded.

The party was very lame. All of the fire elementals made it unbearably hot, and the drinks were warm. They hadn't planned for any music or entertainment, so we were going to have to suffer through this for about three hours. Ugh.

I tried to say at the outskirts of the crowd. A few monsters came up to say hello, like Heats Flamesmen, {yes, I remembered} Vulkin, and Tsunderplane. It was nice talking to them, but It was almost unbearable to stand beside them. An hour or so in, Undyne and Anthony got into an argument. At first i couldn't tell what it was about, until I ran over and saw what was happening.

Anthony had his glittering knife raised, about to strike down onto the dog amalgamate, Endogeny. He was about to kill them. Undyne had her spear raised to Anthony's neck.

"Put the knife DOWN Anthony!" Undyne warned.

"THIS MONSTROSITY MUST DIE! It is a FREAK OF NATURE AND A THREAT TO MANKIND!" Anthony roared. Endogeny was whimpering under the grasp of Anthony's hand up against it's neck.

"THIS IS NOT YOUR REALM! YOU HAVE TO ABIDE UNDER OUR RULES." Undyne shouted.

"NO I DO NOT. IF YOU KILL ME THERE WILL BE WAR." Anthony stopped suddenly. He had just realized what he said. This was his plan all along. He raised the knife a little higher and struck down towards the amalgamate.

I jumped in front of him at the last second and took the full blow to my stomach. It felt like someone had just ripped out my stomach. I collapsed onto my knees, the knife still in my gut, just under the left rib. As I blacked out i could hear the faint sounds of a riot, and shouting ringing in my ears. I passed out, cold.

I woke up in one of the labs beds.

I tried to get up, but it felt like someone set fire to my stomach, so I flopped back down again. My vision was hazy, and i couldn't hear very well, but from what I could tell Toriel was asleep at my feet and Sans was pacing at the foot of my bed. I tried to say something, but my mouth was too dry. I groaned as loud as I could without dying, again. I tried to remember the last time I saved. I couldn't remember.

"Gghhhghghghghhhhhhhhh" I groaned. Toriel sat up quickly, and grabbed my hand. She looked like she wasn't doing too terribly well herself. Sans turned around and looked at me. His left eye was glowing a light blue, but he wasn't angry at me. Well, maybe a little bit.

"My child! Are you okay? Mom asked frantically. I could tell she was very scared, and was relieved I'd woken up.

"My stomach is on fire." I managed to mumble. "W-what happened?

"After you got stabbed, a full-out riot broke out. Undyne almost killed Anthony in cold blood, but Sans was able to, float him? In time. He also spun him around like a carnaval ride." She added while glaring at Sans. He only shrugged in response. "We rushed you to the lab and Alphys was able to take the knife out. She forbade me from healing you until you woke up." Mom reached out and touched my forehead. I felt better instantly.

"You really gave us a scare, kiddo." Sans said. His eye was slowly fading back to its normal colour.

"Im sorry." I replied. I wasn't, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"Its all right, my child. Everything is going to be okay." It felt like she was saying that to herself more than anyone else.

Mom carried me back to the castle. I insisted that i could walk, but she didn't listen. It took a while to get back. Once we went through the front doors, Papyrus came over and carried me to my room. I felt like a big baby. Papyrus was oddly quiet. In fact, the whole underground was silent. It felt eerie, and weird.

"Papyrus? Wheres Anthony?"

Papyrus hesitated. He spoke in a whisper, which was very unlike him. "He is on trial for crimes against the crown. Queen Toriel was going to make it a surprise, but I suppose i should tell you now."

"What?"

Papyrus sighed and continued, "Toriel signed the papers this morning that declared you the heir to the underground. You are officially King Asgore and Queen Toriel's daughter. That's why the Queen set out the dress and tux. She needed to know your gender for the paperwork. They were going to crown you at the party, but it's been canceled. That is why Anthony is being charged with assault to the crown. He will either be executed, or be sent back to the human world with a declaration of war." Papyrus said that as if he had rehearsed it a thousand times before. He didn't even call me "Human".

Papyrus carried me into my room and set me down onto my bed. Alphys came in and checked to see if I was alright. She left without saying a single word. Papyrus looked like he wanted to say something, but he simply sighed, and left. At least he closed the door behind him.

I felt devastated. I started to cry. I leaned over and cradled my face in my hands and sobbed like there was no tomorrow. For all I knew, there wasn't one. I was eventually able to calm myself down, and marched down to the throne room.

Dad was just about to sentence Anthony to death, when I burst into the room. All of the monsters gasped. I looked over at Mom. She looked _horrified._ I looked over at Anthony, then back at Asgore. He leaned over and whispered something in my ear, "He is found guilty. We either kill him, or declare war." He had a painful look in his eyes. Asgore didn't want to do either.

"The humans were looking for a way to enslave us. If we kill him, it gives them a legitimate reason to. If we show _mercy_ there is a chance that other humans will side with us and help. There will be a war either way you choose. At least choose one with a fighting chance."

Asgore nodded. "I FIND ANTHONY SLOANE GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST THE CROWN, AND ATTEMPTED MURDER. I, as King of the Underground, declare war on humanity. This marks a new era, one of bloodshed, but if we are successful, we will live the rest of our lives basking in the sun on the Overworld."

Anthony was dragged to the castle dungeon by two of the royal guards, kicking and screaming. Thomas followed behind. All of the monsters present began to spread the word and get everyone ready. There would be rations to prepare, soldiers to train, and many bunkers to build.

Mom lead me out of the throne room and into the garden. It was massive and beautiful. It had vegetables of all colours and sizes, and many fruits and berries. It was beautiful. The sunlight reflected in from crystals in the ceiling that reached into the overworld. There was a blue stream that separated the garden from the orchard. I couldn't see where the cavern ended from where I stood, so I assumed it must be huge. Mom turned and looked at me. "Im sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I thought it would be a wonderful surprise for the celebration." She pulled a crown from out of a pocket in the side of her dress. "This is the crown of the underworld." She placed it onto my head. "It has been worn by princes and princesses for thousands of years, and now it is your turn to share the burden of the Underground."

I looked up at Mom with tears in my eyes. "I love you, Mom." She swooped down and gave me a hug.

"I love you too."

I slipped out of the garden and headed towards the cell room. It was cold in this part of the castle. It was underneath the throne room. I walked down the steps and was stopped by two royal guards. "I want to have an audience with the human boy Thomas." I stated plainly. The guards glanced at each other, then let me in. Thomas was in the first cell on the right. He was sitting in the corner, hugging his knees with his face buried into his pants. "Thomas?" He looked up at me. I opened the cell and kneeled right in front of him. "What happened?" I asked, scared.

"There has been a war declared on humanity. I'm a human." He answered plainly. He refused to look me in the eyes.

"You could stay here, with us. You could live in the underground and train as a knight." I offered.

"Funny. I remember saying something like that to you once." He answered, still staring at the floor.

"I- I-" I took a shaky breath to stop myself from crying. "I understand if you want to go." He looked me in the eye, with tears rolling down his face.

"I don't want to leave, but I'm the one paying the bills for my family now. I can't leave." He answered on the brink of crying.

I got up and sat down beside him. "Look at us. The same story, repeated twice." He took a shaky breath. "There's another monster war, and we are going to be separated again; forever this time." I felt as shaky as Thomas looked.

"If I change my mind, could I come back?" He pleaded.

"I don't know." I answered simply.

Thomas buried his face back into his knees. I puled Chara's locket out of the waistband of my dress. It had a picture of me and all of my Monster family, and on the other side was the picture of me and Thomas sitting by the dugout bank, leaning against the Maple tree. I gave it to Thomas. He looked up at me questioningly, and opened it. He started to cry. He regained himself fairly quickly, and was only sniffling from time to time.

"Something to remember me by." I said.

"Ill never forget." He replied.

I gave Thomas one last hug, and left the cell.

A few minutes later, I found myself crying into my pillow in the guest room. I felt broken. I eventually fell asleep, face down in my soggy pillow.


	17. Chapter 17

In the over world, Humanity was becoming restless.

The intent of sending the ambassador to the underworld was to create an excuse to enslave the monster species. On the surface, crops were failing, there had been a blight that destroyed the crops that were left, all of the rich had moved away from the East, and there was political unrest in the Western part of the world. There was a threat of a full out nuclear war between the humans brewing between the Northwest, and the Northeast. The monsters came onto the surface at a very bad time.  
Trade between the West and East had slowed to a halt. The West was entirely self sufficient, and making money off of its own resources. The East had been driven to a state of economic depression because of the lack of trade, and there was no one with money in the East anymore. Anyone who could leave, had left, leaving behind the poor and hungry.  
The only rich villages in the East, were the ones close to water ways, or the ocean. The villages were used as shipping ports between the Northwest and Southeast. The water ways also made it far easier to sell goods. Rich business men and women were always looking for a deal and after a few years of the depression, it was well known that the best places to buy extra supplies, or workmanship pieces such as metal work and shoes, was the Northeastern waterway villages.  
The people inland weren't so lucky. They were just scraping by for meals, and often times couldn't pay their rent or heating bills. The Northeast was very cold, and had a short enough growing season as it is. Almost all people who lived inland were helplessly poor, and devastated. No one could take on the burden of helping them until there was enough money in the costal villages to trade with the inlanders. It didn't look like it was going to happen very soon.  
The only thing that the Inlanders had to give them hope, were the stories they told. They told stories of brave heroes pushing back the monster kind, of wizards who harvested magic to seal the demons into pits, of the brave souls who ventured onto a sacred mountain to collect precious gems, and of magical beings that could control the weather, heal the sick, and grow enchanted first-rate crops in seconds.  
Of course, no one actually believed them to be true until the monsters came to the Overworld. There was a huge uproar of who would be able to use the magical creatures. The West had threatened that if they did not get a cut of the monster population to use on their resources, they would take _all_ of monster kind by force. The East argued that they needed them more. They had dying people in the woodlands, their crops were failing, and the sick filled the rural village hospitals to the breaking point. The West wasn't budging, and neither was the East.  
The United Nation held a conference in response to the threats. They had settled that if the East was not able to harness the powers of the monsters, monster kind would be killed. There were too many safety risks with letting them roam the country with their own free will, and needed to be controlled.  
In response the East decided to start a civil war amongst the monsters. One side of the civil war would side with the humans, and the side would help them enslave the other side, then they would turn on the monster allies and have all of monster kind enslaved in a matter of days. The other way it could have gone was the civil war weakened the monsters and then the humans would swoop in and enslave the rest of the monster kind that was left while they were still weak. It did not go either way.  
The war of monster against humans was never supposed to happen. Now the war will go one of two ways. 1: The Monsters win and permanently seal themselves in a new barrier that has no flaws and can not be broken. 2: The Humans win. They kill any monster that stands in their way and enslave the rest of the monster population that is left and damn them to live the rest of their days as nothing more than tools.

Frisk woke up in a damp bed.

I got out of bed. I felt gross and tired. My nights sleep wasn't exactly the greatest; I kept on waking up from nightmares and the distance sounds of Anthony screaming. It wasn't the most comforting thing to wake up to.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed. There was a new, eggplant-purple dress lying on the left chest. It came down all the way to the floor, and lace sleeves the same colour of the dress. There was also a black cape with the Dremmur family crest embroidered with white thread on the back of it. It had a hood that hung just below my eyes when it was pulled all the way down. It looked as if they were some sort of formal mourning clothes.

I put on the dress, tied my cape, and pulled on my black hiking boots. I was on my way out the door, but I tuned around and rustled through my chest. I pulled on my red heart necklace, and actually went out the door.

It was eerily quiet in the castle. I walked down the hallway and into the kitchen. No one was in the dining room. I grabbed an apple off of the fruit basket and ran towards the throne room. I stopped for a minute to catch my breath. No one was in there either. I looked over through the window. There was an old clock tower just visible through the tinted glass. 10:43. Oh no.I was running late. They were going to send Anthony through the barrier at 10:45! I started to run toward the barrier, and tripped on my dress. My knee was probably bleeding, but I pressed on. I got back up and sprinted to the door.

I got there just in time. Mom and Asgore were at the barrier already, and were about to address Anthony one final time. I walked up towards them. Mom was staring at the ground. I could tell that she didn't want to do this, but there was no other option. I walked up to her and have her hand a comforting squeeze. She looked up at me with an appreciative smile.

Mom, Asgore, and everyone else in the room pulled something over their eyes. Some monsters put a hat on their face, some pulled sweater hoods over their eyes, and other wore capes similar to mine. I followed their lead and pulled the dark hood over my face. Asgore started to talk in a loud, booming voice, "Anthony. You have been given the burden to deliver sinister news. There is to be war between Monsters, and Man. You will accept this burden and heed my warning: If you ever set foot on the mountain again, your very soul will burst into flame and nothing will remain but your dust."Two of the royal guards grabbed Anthony by the arms and dragged him out of the barrier. I could hear Thomas's foot steps follow after him. The guards returned and everyone raised their hoods. There was work to be done. "There will be orders sent out this afternoon concerning the war effort. Until then I order you all to go home. Spend time with your families. This war is going to be hard on everyone." Asgore said with a heavy heart. Everyone left. There was just me, Asgore and Mom left in the room.

The orders were sent out at 8:00 pm. They were: "Any able bodied men and women are asked to join the royal guard. Any able bodied monster who has not told their station officer that they are not going to join the cause, will be expected to show up for training and will be marked missing in the official war receipt and your family will be notified of your disappearance. Each Monster will receive a ration card. The card will contain the permission to buy seven vegetables, five fruits, half a loaf of bread, one litre of water, and five slices of sandwich meat per person regardless of age or gender. The ration card is all of the food you will be permitted to buy for a seven day cycle. Any children under the age of ten will be asked to collect extra metal and bring it to their station officer. The metal will be used to create weapons and staffs. Children eleven to seventeen will be asked to package rations and haul them to the closest boat launch for shipping. Anyone who doesn't join the cause will be asked to join a workforce. The workforces to choose from are as follows: Sewing, rations, farming, welding, repairs, metal work, healthcare, research, central intelligence, radio, and messenger. There is to be a curfew for children ages seventeen and under. All minors must be in there homes at 7:00 sharp or will be escorted home by a member of the royal guard. All classes will cease until the end of the war. If you have any concerns please ask your station officer." It was stapled onto every wall and pinned onto every announcement board in the underground by 9:00 pm.

I couldn't sleep that night. I was too scared of what was going to happen. I got myself worked up about the "what ifs" and "what coulds" I couldn't stop thinking about what could happen to all of my friends; how many people be killed in this war? Would I ever see Thomas again? When are the humans going to attack? Eventually I scared myself so much that I was almost in a panic. I decided i needed to find Mom.

I swung my legs over the side of my bed, and started to head towards the throne room. My bare feet were cold against the ground. My footsteps left echoes bouncing off the walls of the hallway that sounded like the pitter patter of rain. I burst into the throne room and examined my surroundings. Mom was sitting alone at her throne reading over some sort of scroll, there was no light coming from the windows, and the buttercups looked like they were starting to wilt. I stepped closer and pulled on Toriel's sleeve.

"Huh?" Toriel looked up from what she was reading. When she met my eyes she smiled and lifted me onto her lap, facing her. "Hello, dear. You couldn't sleep either?" I nodded. Mom sighed heavily. She had dark circles under her eyes and her reading glasses were slightly askew. She continued, "I'm scared too. You're going to have to live somewhere else. Its too dangerous to have you living so close to the barrier without anyone watching you. Besides," She started, trying to sound enthusiastic, "It would be a long walk to training with Undyne." I didn't want to leave Mom, but I couldn't stay here either. I knew she was doing this for my own good, but it didn't mean i had to be happy about it. "You can have a choice though," She looked at me with a forced smile painted on her face, "You could live with Undyne, or at Sans and Papyrus'." She offered.

"Ill think about it." I replied, unenthusiastically.

"Thats good." Mom planted a kiss on my forehead, ignoring the disdain in my voice. We sat there in silence for a moment or so. "Do you want to sleep with me?" She offered. I nodded. I curled up into her warm, white fur.

We slept the rest of the night, together, on her throne.


	18. Chapter 18

Day 2.

It had been two days since the declaration of war. I was in my room packing up all of my clothes into my duffle bag. I had said my goodbyes the day before. I hadn't been up for more the=an an hour. I had my hair pulled into a messy ponytail, my sweater pulled over hy head sloppily, and a pair of black sweats on. My dresses, pants, shirts, sweaters, socks, underwear, and any of the books I'd borrowed from the library were already packed. The rest of my clothes were stuffed into my chests. I still had to pack my other shoes and my cape when there was a knock at the door.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

"Who's there?" I asked, half heartedly. Mom had been trying to cheer me up with knock knock jokes for the last few days. They didn't really help, but I appreciated the effort on her part.

"Wanda." The voice through the door sounded suspiciously like Sans'. I chuckled.

"Wand who?" I replied over my shoulder.

"Wanda let me in?" Sans replied, sounding indifferent.

I pulled myself out of the chest and opened the door. Sans was dressed in his classic sweater, white T-shirt, and black shorts. I opened the door wider to let him inside. He walked past me into the dim room.

Sans walk inside and admired the room. I got back to packing. I rooted out my cape and folded it neatly. I continued to unpack as i started to talk with Sans.

"What brings you to the castle?" I asked, nonchalantly.

"I wanted to figure out where you were staying, so I could tell Papyrus whether or not he has to drag the spare bed out of the garage. He gets on my bones when he's angry." Sans replied. He sat down on the bed and regarded me carefully.

I hadn't been doing too terribly well in the past few days. I hadn't slept more then five hours in the past few days, and i couldn't remember the last time I ate. I must have looked like death. My mental state probably wasn't much better. I continued to pack the rest of my clothes whilst talking to Sans over my shoulder.

"Im not sure where I'm going to stay yet. Undyne would be happy to have me, but I wouldn't want to burn the house down again." I replied, my back turned to Sans. "Thats the last of it." I said more to myself than to Sans. I remembered the last time I went over to Undyne's. It ended with a broken take, a broken window, and the house starting on fire.

"Well you better decide quick. Papyrus won't be very far behind me, and he's dying to know the answer." Sans said with a sly look on his face.

I whipped my head around to look at Sans. He didn't.

Sans gave me an even wider grin.

Oh no. He did. Sans had gotten Papyrus to come and ask me personally, knowing full well it was almost impossible for me to say no. Papyrus gets really disappointed when something he's excited for doesn't work out. It kills me when someone who's usually a ray of sunshine get so glum. Knowing Sans, he had already convinced him that there was no way I'd say no. He was right, but I didn't appreciate it.

"You didn't?" I asked with a complaining tone. Sans crossed his arms as if I had greatly offended him.

"I didn't say _I_ invited him." He said defensively. He was teasing me.

I sighed and slung my duffle bag over my shoulder. I _was_ excited to stay at the skeleton brothers' house, but I didn't like being forced into making the decision. I started to tie up my black hiking boots when Papyrus burst into the room.

"OH FRISK! I AM SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE AN OFFER TO MAKE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE WITH MYSELF AND MY BROTHER FOR THE DURATION OF THE WAR?" Papyrus asked with as much enthusiasm as a five year old who just got told they were going to the candy store.

I put on my best smile and mustered as much determination as I could find. I started to respond when Sans cut in before I could say anything.

"I dunno, bro. She hasn't decided yet." I wish he would stop teasing me.

I responded as fast as I could, "Yes, Papyrus! I would be happy to stay with you." Papyrus looked like he was going to explode from delight.

"EEEEEE! YAY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL RUN HOME IMMEDIATELY AND MAKE YOUR BED!" Papyrus took off down the hallway so fast, I wouldn't have been surprised if the stone set on fire. His footsteps echoed as loud as thunder off of the hallway walls.

Sans started to call after him, "Can you make mine while you're at it?" He called down the hallway.

"DO IT YOURSELF!" Papyrus yelled in reply.

After a few minutes I grabbed the rest of my stuff and closed the door. "You ready?" Sans asked.

"As ready as I'm going to be." I replied.

Sans offered to take me through a "short cut", but I wanted to walk. We started to walk out of the castle and off towards the brothers' house. I decided to take the long way around. We traveled through the hotel, the core, Alphas's lab, and we finally crossed the bridge to Waterfall when Sans started to wheeze.

"Huh, huh, I- huh, I think I should-huh, take a break." Sans gasped through heavy breaths.

We sat on the bridge for a while; Sans wheezed beside me. When he finally caught his breath again we set off once more. I stammered up and gave Sans a lift.

We walked in silence the entire time. I didn't really feel like talking, and I highly doubt Sans really felt like carrying a conversation on his own. I took a left turn and we walked up to the boat man's shore line.

I dragged Sans onto the boat and asked the Boat man to take us to Snowdin. He simply nodded and started to paddle. I sat down beside Sans at the end of the boat. He was hugging his knees and looked down at the water. The reflection was wavy and broken, but the light it reflected from the crystals was pretty. The boat man sang a terrible song that lasted for half of the trip that almost made my ears bleed.

We arrived at the Snowdin river front five minutes later. I thanked the boat man and made my way to the brothers' house with my bag slung over my shoulder. I was halfway there when Sans caught up to me. He looked tired. I slowed my pace as we walked towards the house. The crunch of the freshly fallen snow beneath my boots was the only sound that broke the silence. I hadn't even made it to the front door when Papyrus opened it and carried me inside.

It was kinda weird having the brothers' full attention. I have almost never talked to them without someone else there, or when there was other things to worry about. For the first time ever I could actually have a relationship with them that was entirely my own creation. I was excited.

I let Papyrus carry me into the kitchen. He was making spaghetti and tomato sauce. The spaghetti was boiling over and the meat sauce was bubbling and sputtering like a volcano getting ready to erupt. I jumped out of Papyrus's arms and started to fix it. I opened the pot and put a wooden spoon across the top, turned down the heat to the tomato sauce, and gave it a good stir. I almost had everything back under control. I looked behind me and found Papyrus's jaw hanging open.

"I DIDN'T KNOW YOU COULD COOK!" I was worried for a second. I almost thought I'd offended him, "THIS MEANS WE CAN COOK TOGETHER! WE CAN COOK SPAGHETTI, ROTELINNI, PECORINO, AND ALL OF THE OTHER PASTAS AT THE STORE!" Papyrus had started to jump up and down with excitement. I was relieved.

We all ate dinner on the couch. Sans was playing Skyrism. I thought it was cool; killing dragons, rescuing people, learning magic. It was also kinda funny to listen to Sans curse every time something hit him. A dragon swooped down out of nowhere and started to burn Sans' character to ash, all while Sans was trying to run away. "OH MY GOD! IS THAT A DRAGON?! Thats a dragon. Oh f*ck its a dragon. Oh Sh*t. oh f*ck. Oh Cr*p. Running away. Running away. Oh f*ck. OH F*CK ITS BACK AGAIN!" Sans yelled as he ran away. I laughed until my stomach hurt, and then accidentally fell off the couch. I settled down and sat back up on the faded couch. Papyrus liked to help Sans with the dungeon puzzles. He would solve them way before I even realized there was even a puzzle to solve. He was especially good at the puzzles that required some sort of memory. I admired his cleverness. It was about 8:00 pm when I got up to help Papyrus with the dishes.

After the dishes, Papyrus showed me where he put my bed. It was leaning sideways on the hallway wall. "SO, UMMM. I DIDNT KNOW WHERE TO PUT YOU, SO I DIDNT PUT THE BED ANYWHERE." I didn't know where I should go. I supposed I should choose the brother that would be able to protect me best if there was an attack, but Papyrus snored very, _really_ loud. If I couldn't sleep in a silent castle with guards everywhere, there was no way I'd be able to sleep with Papyrus in his room.

"Uhhh. Where do you think I should sleep?" I asked Papyrus. I was hoping he'd give me another option besides his room.

"Well, you could sleep in my room, or Sans's room, maybe." Papyrus looked over the railing and shouted at Sans, "HEY, BROTHER?!"

Sans paused the game and looked up at us. "What, bro?" he replied, slightly annoyed.

"CAN FRISK SLEEP IN YOUR ROOM IF SHE WANTED?" Papyrus shouted.

Sans's face turned bright blue, similar to a blush. My cheeks and ears burned too. I was probably blushing even harder then he was. "Papyrus snores." I added quickly, hoping to save some face.

"Oh, yeah. Uhhhh" Sans was rubbing the back of his neck. I could tell he was nervous.

"ALRIGHT I WILL SET UP THE BED IN YOUR ROOM!" Papyrus continued, oblivious to what had happened.

Papyrus put away all of Sans's socks and dismantled the self sustaining tornado so the bed would fit. He put my bed underneath San's and put on fresh, purple sheets and a dark green comforter. Papyrus left the room and came back with a floppy grey pillow for me to sleep on. I thanked Papyrus and he left.

I dumped my yellow duffle bag onto the floor and fished out the night gown/shirt. I changed quickly into my pyjamas and climbed into bed. I stared at the ceiling for a little while reflecting on the day's events. I hoped Toriel wasn't missing me more then I was missing her. I recalled how soft and warm her fur was, and how she gave the best hugs. It wasn't long until I fell asleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night. Sans was tangled in his blankets, but he seemed to be sleeping soundly. I sat up to turn around and face him. Sans shifted in his sleep. Wait! He wasn't sleeping. I turned all the way around and watched him for a few moments. It sounded like he was crying. I kicked my blankets off of my legs and crawled off my bed. I stood up and walked quietly over to Sans.

All I could hear was faint sobbing. He was facing the wall away from me. I sat down onto the bed. Sans didn't seem to notice. I lied down next to him and wrapped him in a comforting hug. Sans immediately tensed under my grasp. He quickly softened and rolled over to face me.

His tears were glowing bright blue. Sans looked like he was going to break down. His face looked painfully sad, he was shaking softly, and he was hugging me with a death grip. I held onto the small skeleton and rubbed his back. Pretty soon he started to sob into my shoulder. Thick, heavy, hushed sobs were muffled by my pyjama shirt.

Sans didn't calm down. He would get better and start to slow down, only to start sobbing even harder than before. I didn't let go. I figured if he let it all out he would feel better, so I just had to wait until that happened. An hour passed and Sans calmed down enough for me to start talking. He was still crying softly, but he had stopped shaking.

"You're not really okay, are you Sans?" I asked comfortingly.

Sans shuddered and stopped crying. He seemed to be more in control. "No. I'm not." He answered simply; his voice hushed.

"Can you tell me what happened?" I asked

"I dunno, kid." Sans said reluctantly. He needed to get this off of his chest, and i wasn't going to stop until he did.

"I can handle it. I promise." I tried to get an answer out of him.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, kiddo. God knows I did." He waited for me to say something. I didn't say anything. I hoped he would understand that I wanted him to continue. Sans sighed, and the whole story came spilling out.

"Before you came here, I made a promise to a lady behind a door. She was great! I practiced my Knock Knock jokes on her, and she tried out some puns of her own. One night she told me that if a human ever came down from the Overworld to protect them. I promised I would. There were six humans that came down after that. Most of them were bad bones. They would kill monsters left and right, leaving a trail of dust behind them. None of those kids made it to Snowdin though. There were a few that were very nice, kinda like you. This one girl, Ella, she was an absolute peach. Ella fell down after she got lost on a hunting trip. I personally escorted her through the underground. Ella had a pistol with her, but she never used it. She loved puns, and jumprope. She would go on these funny little agents that never failed to make me laugh. I got her almost all the way through Waterfall, but Undyne attacked. She killed her on the spot and died in my arms. I flag Undyne onto the nearest wall and held onto Ella. While I was, uh, grieving, I accidentally absorbed some of her soul. I didn't mean to, but I couldn't reverse it. I managed to seal the rest of her soul into the heat container, but- Anyway, thats why my eye glows yellow and blue." Sans ended it off quickly so I would think that was the end of it. I nodded for him to continue, and he cursed under his breath. "You're going to make me finish, aren't you?" I nodded. "Welp. I better get it over with, then. So anyway after Ella died I stopped escorting the kids. I met them at the edge of the ruins, and if they killed any of the monsters, I stopped protecting them. This went on for a few more kids until you came along." Sans paused for a second, then continued. "You came through the ruins with a determined look on your face, and the sun in your eyes. The first time through you went through with a perfect track score, but you must've killed something in the ruins and we weren't able to go free. I thought you had died, but then the world RESET. I was back at the beginning, standing at my post close to the ruin gate. It really freaked me out. After a few minutes you came out of the door again. I was surprised. I pretended I had never seen you before and let you go through the game. You killed muffet. Just when I thought your journey was over, it RESET. This happened couples times. I lost track after about two-hundred. I had gotten used to it, that is until you came through the door with dust stained on your clothes. Little did I know, this was the start of your **_Genocide_** runs. You would come through that door time after time after time, and the only thing you would do is kill. I watched you kill all of the Snowdin residents, Undyne, Alphys, all of the Waterfall residents, and All of the Hotland residents. You killed everyone..." Sans paused. He started to shake again. He took a deep, painful breath, "You even killed my brother. I, watched you kill everyone I have ever known. With no remorse. Or guilt." Sans was getting angry. "You killed everyone and I was lefT ALONE!" Sans took a shuddering breath, "I had no choice but to stop you. I couldn't sit idly by anymore. I confronted you on every single one of your genocide runs. I killed you. I killed you over and over and over again, but you wouldn't stop. I had to break the only promise I had ever made. I never even got her name." Sans looked like he was going to cry, but he continued; his speech broken by the occasional sob and sigh. "Then you came through the door. There was no dust on your sweater, no stick in your hand. You had a huge smile on your face, and a laugh that pierced the air. You didn't kill anyone. You loved Pap's puzzles, and laughed at my half-assed ones. You went through the entire underground with a grin on your face. An- And you set us free." Sans stopped talking for a while. He breathed softly and waited for his head to clear. "And even though I'd trust you with Papyrus's life, Im still scared that you'll undo everything that I've come to love."

I sat up, speechless. _I **killed** everyone. _I started to cry. Sans sat up beside me and pulled me into a hug. I was so upset that I didn't hug back. I continued to cry into Sans shoulder until he pulled away. He set his hands on my shoulders and forced me to look into his eyes. I was still sobbing, but I managed to look at his face. "I know its not your fault. That stuff takes a toll on your mental state and your trust, ya know?" I sniffed, and wiped my face with the sleeve of my pyjamas. I leaned over and hugged Sans as hard as I could.

"Im so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, imsosorry, I'm so sorry, I'm ssoooooo, soooooooo-" I started to cry. Sand hugged back, and let out a quiet cry too.

I lied down with Sans until he fell asleep, then crawled into my own bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow I fell asleep.

I woke up the next day incredibly tired. I rolled out of bed and slipped on my purple dress. I wanted to visit the castle today, and if i was going to make it before noon I needed t leave soon. I brushed my hair, tied my cape, and headed out the door.

I took the boat man to hotly and walked the rest of the day, well, almost. It was cool outside, even in holland. I was running to try to keep warm, and buttoned my cape down to me belly. I was making good time, when i ran into a pair of royal guards, running straight for me. I jumped straight to my left. The guards missed me by a hair. The pair stopped, and turned around.

"Are you Frisk Dremmur? Daughter of Asgore and Toriel Dremmur?" They asked with a tone of authority.

"Yes" I answered uneasily.

"You are wanted at the castle immediately." The two guards each took one of my ams and escorted me to the Castle.

When I got there Mom was healing someone collapsed onto the ground. I ran up and saw it was a human. I looked over at mom questioningly. She glanced up worriedly and went back to healing the guy on the floor. He looked to be in pretty rough shape. He was covered in bruises, and had a huge gash in his right forearm. The human came to. Astor sat him up against the throne. Mom checked his vitals. I pushed through the small crowd of monsters and asked a simple question, "What is your name?" I asked urgently.

"Cavern. Cavern Jacobs. The new human ambassador." promptly after saying this, Cavern passed out.


	19. Chapter 19

Frisk was scared.

Asgore lifted Cavern into his huge arms. Asgore adjusted him so he would be easier to carry, and ran down the hall towards the guest room. I tried to run after them, but two of the royal guards stood in my way. I tried to run through them, but they stayed as solid as ever.

The one on the left spoke, "His majesty has asked that you stayed as far away from the barrier as possible. Please stay on this side of the guard."

I felt defeated. Mom stood up from her place by the throne and walked over to me. She walked with a sense of purpose, but underneath it she seemed stressed. Toriel stood beside me and put one of her furry hands on my shoulder. I looked up at her. She had an apologetic look in her eyes. I instantly felt better.

"Thats okay, child. Do you want to get your amour sized?" She suggested enthusiastically. I gave her an equally enthusiastic nod.

Toriel lead me down a maze of corridors and rooms until we made it to the sewing room. It was a cute room. It was about the size of a master bedroom, it had a loom in the corner, and thousands of fabrics hanging on the left wall. There was a large sewing machine sitting beside a little podium with a dress mannequin standing on top of them. The walls were painted blue, and were covered in measurements, sewing patterns, and sketches tacked into the plaster. On the right wall there was a desk, and sitting in front of it was an elderly spider monster, similar to Muffet. Mom walked up to the old monster and started to talk to her.

"Hello Widow, how are you today?" Mom asked sweetly.

"Im just fine, Toriel. Im guessing you're in for the little heir's armour sizing, eh?" Lady Widow asked.

"Why yes we are." Mom answered.

It took three hours of standing on the pedestal to get it perfect. My amour was made of a special, lightweight metal called Araneite. The metal is made out of metallized spider webs. It had a breastplate that was designed close to Undyne's armour, but the leg piece fit close to my legs, and still let me bend easily. My helmet was a simple midivil-style helmet with an open face. It looked beautiful, and let me move easily.

Mom told Widow we had to be going. I said my goodbyes and left for training.

I took the boat man to Waterfall, and walked to her house from there. Waterfall looked different. It was only the third day of the war, but there were already mine fields set up and a whole lot of other barricaded and traps. There was barbed wire everywhere, magic bombs waiting to be activated, and explosive liquid mixed into the water and puddles.

Undine's place was completely camouflaged with the wall. If I hadn't known the way, I would have walked right passed it. I approached carefully, and knocked on the wall. Undyne poped out of a door in the wall.

She was dressed in about half of her armour. Undyne was wearing only her chest plate and metal boots. She waved me, hurriedly, inside. I ran up to her. She pulled me inside so hard, i fell right over top of her and about ten feet away from the wall. I landed with a thud.

"Ouf."

Undyne closed the door, and brushed the dust off of her chest plate. "You'll be fine." She said nonchalantly. "Okay. Toriel told me you want to learn how to fight. We'll start with this!" Undyne threw a foam sword towards me.

I grabbed the sword. It felt awkward in my hand, unbalanced. It was bright pink with a yellow hilt. I looked up at Undyne, questionably. She had her own blue and green foam sword in her hand.

Undyne looked me over and advanced. She raised her sword. I copied her movement. "This is starting position. Its how you start out a sparing match." Undyne said with a teacher-like tone. "Show me what you got." Undyne said with an evil look on her face.

She tried to hit my left side. I backed as best I could and advanced. I blocked another blow to my shoulder. I counter attacked. I twisted the foam blade and aimed for her left side. Undyne blocked at the last second, and counter attacked. She swept downward, almost knocking my foam sword to the ground, and she hit me on the side of my arm. I lifted my sword and raised it so it was blocking my left shoulder, and my face. Something clicked. I raised my sword and swooped at Undyne's knees. She didn't have a second to react. She collapsed. Unseen was on her hands and knees like a dog. I swooped down onto her back, and she fell down onto her stomach.

Undyne was panting, and dripping with sweat. She got up off the ground and stood facing me. I looked up her. She had an unreadable look in her eyes. She looked me over. a smile creeped onto her face. "That was great!" I breathed, not realizing I had been holding my breath. "I guess I won't be going easy on you next time."

We spard for the rest of the afternoon. Undyne taught me a few tricks with holding the sword, and disabling my opponent. It was constant pressure. If she taught me to keep up with an opponent faster then me that I'd last longer in battle. At least that was what she believed. "Great."

Undyne and I had a drink inside, and then I was off. I was back at the skeletons' house late. The snow was crunchy underneath my boots. The cold almost made my sweaty skin stick to the spider metal. The atmosphere of the Underground had changed. Everyone was inside busy with their faction, or trying to keep up their studies over the war. I sure hoped none of the royal guard would catch me out after curfew. Luckily, they didn't.

I walked in, still dripping with sweat. Sans was playing Skirism and Papyrus was eating spaghetti on the couch beside him. I hung up my cape on the hanger, and went upstairs to take off my armour. I was halfway up the stairs when Sans called after me.

"Hey. Nice getup." Sans said, still distracted by his game.

"YES IT DOES LOOK COOL! IT LOOKS KINDA LIKE SANS' CHARACTER IN THE GAME!" Papyrus complimented.

"No it doesn't! My character has _full_ bad blood armour! Not some stupid spider metal." Sans stated, annoyed and hurt from the dishonour done to his character.

I laughed and closed the door to the shared room. I peeled off my armour and shoved it into my duffle bag. I wonder how Mom's doing. I hope she's helping that Cavern guy. That guy better be on our side, or he'd be dead before you could say, "Baked potatoes!" I sighed and pulled my pyjama's over my head.

I was watching Sans play Skirism with Papyrus, when there was a knock at the door. Not again, I thought. I slid off the couch and walked over to the door. Sure enough, It was a member of the royal guard. I opened the door wider and gestured for him to enter. I closed the door and looked over to see Papyrus and Sans with their weapons out. I ran over to them. They tensed as I drew closer. They never took their eyes off the guard. Sans' face looked especially angry.

"Whats going on?!" I demanded.

Sans didn't even take his eyes off the guard. "Get behind me, now." He growled.

I looked over at the guard. They looked like any of the other guards I'd seen around the Underground. "Whats your business here?" I asked the guard with my formal tone i used whenever I was supposed to be a princess. I hoped I sounded intimidating.

"I was sent here to collect you, princess." He stated. He didn't sound very confident, but he was firm.

"Where am I to be sent?" I asked with my princess voice.

"Uhhhhh... Th- The palace! Yeah, the palace. You've been requested to have an audience with the head of the royal guard." He answered. There was some things that were seriously wrong with his claim. 1: No one called the castle the "Palace." Ever. 2: Undyne was ordered to man down the troops in the interior of the underground. 3: I would never be permitted to go anywhere close to the castle without two escorts.

"Wrong answer, buddy." Sans said with an eerily calm tone of voice. He pushed me behind him.

"What's your deal?" The guard asked.

Sans looked up. His eye was glowing bright blue. "Now, this is how it's going to go. You're going to turn yourself into the guard, or you're gonna have a bad time." Sans said, calmly.

Papyrus looked determined as ever. I grabbed onto his coat and got him to look down at me. I raised my hand to my face, and motioned for Papyrus to lean down. He was reluctant. There was an intruder in the doorway and i wanted to tell him a secret. At first, he waved me off. I persisted and finally he leaned down. I whispered in his ear, "Can you get his helmet off? Sans is going to kill him." Papyrus looked at me confused. He could never see his brother killing anyone. He was too lazy to even go outside most days. How was he supposed to have enough motive to kill anybody. Papyrus looked at the guard, then back at me. I supposed i'd convinced him, because he finally took a deep breath and advanced.

"LISTEN, WE DONT NEED TO FIGHT. JUST LET ME TAKE OFF YOUR HELMET." Papyrus walked over to the guard. He advanced until he was right in front of the fake guard. Papyrus reached out to the helmet, when suddenly the guard attacked. Papyrus was missed by a hair.

I had no choice.

I leaped in front of Papyrus and Sans. I faced the guard with a burning rage. All of my compassion, and any sort of hope that the guard would back down abandoned me in that instant. I hadn't felt this way since Chara- I entered a battle. I advanced closer to the guard. He attacked. *-1 hp* The guard looked like he was sure he was going to win. He almost laughed when I started the battle. I advanced closer. The guard looked more nervous then before. I was so angry that ANYONE would try to hurt my friends. I would never let that happen. I advanced closer. The guard attacked frantically. *-5 hp* He was loosing control of his fright. I looked at the guard with a fiery glare in my eyes. My arm hurt, and my head was woozy, but there was no way I was going to let this creep hurt anyone. I advanced. I was right in front of the guard's face. The guard tried to attacked, but I deflected it off of my good arm. The guard was shaking underneath my deathly glare. I raised the guard's helmet off of his head. It was a human.

I looked him dead in the eyes. "You have absolutely NO right to come into my home. If you EVER try something like this again I WONT spare you. Do you understand?" The guard nodded vigourusly. It looked like he was going to cry.

I realized what I had done. I just intimidated a person into submitting. I stumbled backwards, and ran up to my room. I swore that I was never going to be a bully, ever. And now-

I climbed into bed and listened to the muffled sobs from outside the door. Papyrus was comforting the man, and Sans was helping him get out the door. They kept on saying phrases like, "It'll be alright." "Its going to be okay." and, "We're not going to hurt you." As far as i could hear, they managed to calm down the intruder a little bit before putting on their coats and heading outside. The last thing I heard before they slammed the door behind them was, "You guys aren't as bad as I though you were."

I cried myself to sleep.


	20. Chapter 20

Frisk woke up in a messy bed.

The next day I woke up extra early. Papyrus and Sans were still asleep, and i could hear papyrus snoring down the hall. I shrugged on some clothes, pulled on my boots, and headed out.

I didn't quite know where I was heading, but i figured that anywhere was better then the house. Turns out that the human that broke in yesterday was a spy. He killed one of the soldiers outside the barrier and used the armour to get past the gate. Anyways, I was creeped out.

I started walking towards waterfall.

"I wonder if I should get a head start on training for today" I thought carelessly in my mind. As i kept walking, I could hear a distant moan coming from Nastablook's house. I decided to go and investigate. I swerved my course and headed up the lane

Nastablook's house had a light on upstairs, but everything else was dark. I walked up to his doorstep and invited myself in.

Nastablook was a mess. They were sprawled out on the floor weeping, with ghost tears streaming down their face and all of their music scattered across the floor. I ran over to Nastablook and tried to get their attention.

"Hey. Hey, bud. What's the matter?" I cooed. I was on my hands and knees, trying my best to sound as soothing as possible.

" I,.. *Sniff* Im just,... so alone." Nastablook sat up and looked down at the floor. I had the urge to hug them, but I wasn't entirely sure how that would go.

"Funny. I was just thinking the same thing." I said, honestly. After last night I felt very alone, and upset. I hoped I wasn't being so obvious about it

Nastablook got up and wandered around. They seemed agitated, and, really sad.

"Nastablook, what's wrong?" I asked

Nastablook's normally light blue features became a dark blue. They started to float around, that almost looked like pacing. Back and forth, and back and forth they floated, until finally they stopped to answer. Nastablook looked at me like they were going to burst into ghost tears.

"I miss my cousin! He left one day and now I'm all alone." Nastablook had a few tears running down their face, "It's not the same without them!" They almost shouted.

Nastablook looked very flustered for a moment, then they lied down on their back and looked at the ceiling. I lied down right beside him. We lied there in a comfortable silence for quite a while, swimming in our thoughts. The books on the floor, and even the walls eventually seemed to fade away into nothingness. It was comfortable.

"Im not the same as I used to be." I said out loud, for no particular reason.

Nastablook didn't reply for a long time. We just lied there in silence. I almost forgot I said anything until Nastablook started talking.

"Yeah. People do that." Nastablook waited a couple minutes and started again, "My cousin was always fascinated by humans. He loved their culture, and the mystery behind them." They paused for a few seconds, then continued, "He even had a fan club made for them. Only a few weeks after that, he left."

Nastablook and I stared at the nothingness for a long time after that.

I let myself focus on the books, and the walls, the refrigerator, and the computer, until i could see everything again. I stood up. I stacked up all of the books, put away the CD's and let myself out. Nastablook obviously still had a lot to get through.

I dangled my feet in the pond outside of the lane to Nastablook and Undyne's houses. The water glowed a florescent blue, and glowed in my hands. I looked at my dark blue reflection in the water.

"I must be about 15 now. I was ten when I first fell into the underground. Look where I am now." I thought.

There was a scar on my right cheek, and two on my knees. I laughed at myself. I got the scars on my knees while piggy backing Monster kid in Snowdin two years ago. I reached up and brushed the scar on my cheek. I got that while fighting Undyne six months ago. Funny how the time flies.

I splashed the water around for a while, letting myself being amused by the glow.

I fell down when I was ten. I stayed with Toriel until I was twelve. I traveled around for a couple years, avoiding Undyne, and visiting Papyrus. I even said with Monster kid for Christmas, even though I celebrated Hanukkah. It was a great few years. Almost eight months ago I kept hearing someone whisper to me while I slept. It kept saying, "Continue your quest. The journey doesn't end here." I figured anything was better then living out of dumpsters and sleeping on the streets, so I left.

It took a while, but I managed to save everyone.

Look at me now. Monsters are doomed, theres a war raging above us, everyone is in danger, Ive been separated from my Mom, and Im playing in a stupid puddle.

I picked a stone up off the ground and threw it as hard as I could into the water. I sat there for a while, staring at the ripples, thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking an-

"Hey, kiddo."

I looked up. Sans was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder.

"Mind if I sit down?" He asked.

I nodded, and he plopped down beside me. I kept staring at the florescent water.

"So," Sans started

I glanced up.

He was rubbing the back of his head like he was nervous about something. I kept staring.

"Ive noticed you've been pretty down lately, with the battle and... stuff." He added

"Really? Stuff?" I asked sarcastically.

"Sorry." He replied quickly

"Nothing to be sorry about." I stated.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" He asked

"Im thinking." I gave a slight laugh under my breath. "I hardly ever talked when I first came down here."

"Yeah. You were like a brick with legs" Sans replied.

I laughed. We sat for silence for a while. I couldn't help but wonder why Sans came after me. It had to be before seven, and he was never up until after noon. I let the thought drift away from my conscience. So many memories, and I had barely thought about them until now. I wonder if my mother was making a fortune off of my old stuff. I shivered at the thought.

I started to wonder what Sans was doing before I fell into the underground. I knew about the kids, but what was life like before then. He had a brother... I wonder if he had a Mom, or a Dad.

I glanced over at Sans. He was staring at the water, cross-legged on the bank. His high-tops were muddy, and his basketball shorts looked wrinkled.

"What has he been doing?" I thought to myself.

"Sans," I started out loud, "What did you do before the kids? Before any of us fell into the underground."

Sans stop moving. It looked like all of the bones in his body tensed together and locked for a solid second. Suddenly, he relaxed an leaned back on to his arms.

"Honestly, I can't remember much." He replied.

We sat at the bank of the puddle for hours after that. Just doing nothing, and thinking seemed to settle my nerves a little. Having Sans there was nice too. By around noon I had to go for training with Undyne, and Sans went back home. It was just another ordinary day.

*A*

 **Sorry for the hiatus! Im back.**


	21. Chapter 21

Frisk wakes up on the floor.

"Ouch." Frisk said tiredly, to herself.

I crawled out of bed, and headed over to my duffel bag. I grabbed a pair of grey, track sweats, and a green shirt. I hung the clothes over my arm and headed to the bathroom. My hair was caked from mud from yesterdays practice and I had cuts and bruises scattered all over. Lately I had been feeling like more of a punching bag then a student. I ran the shower water as hot as it would run, and stepped inside.

I got out in a haze of steam, and dried off. I looked directly into the reflection of myself in the mirror. Despite all of the cuts and bruises, it's still me. I sighed and shrugged on my clothes.

I started thinking about my day plan. It was a Sunday, about six in the morning, and I had nothing lined up to do.

"Hmmmm" I thought absent mindedly to myself.

I wandered into the kitchen, and looked through the fridge. Ketchup, ketchup, ketchup, hot sauce, ketchup, cold spaghetti, ketchup... I closed the fridge. I walked into the living room and sat on the couch. A few seconds later there was some footsteps coming from up stairs, and soon Papyrus was coming down the stairs.

"WHY GOOD MORNING HUMAN! WOULD YOU LIKE SOME BREAKFAST?" Papyrus asked, eagerly.

"No thanks, Pap. I think I'm going to go out." I replied.

"WELL BRING A SWEATER! ITS UNUSUALLY COLD OUT." Papyrus answered over his shoulder, while heading to the kitchen.

I walked out and shut the door behind me. I wandered west through Snowdin. I didn't exactly know where I was heading, but I figured that I was going in a reasonable direction. The puzzles were reprogrammed for security from the hole on Mnt. Ebott, so I had to be careful when passing by them. Eventually, I ended up at the Ruins' door.

I could remember the first time I saw the other side of it. I had just left Toriel, and was creeped out by the security camera. It was years ago. I opened the door and stepped inside. The hallway had more spiderwebs, and it was a little dusty, but everything was the same. The actual house was the same as well, but there were sheets covering the furniture. I passed through the house once, and headed out the other door.

It took me a couple hours, but I was finally close to the fall site. I was in the purple room with all of the red flowers. It was the first time i'd SAVED. I walked down the stairs and found it was still there. I walked up to the golden star, and stopped. I hadn't seen a save point in a very long time, and I wasn't sure I wanted to save after all that happened. I turned around and walked trough the south door.

"Heh" I laughed under my breath. "Who would've thought Flowey was okay." I whispered.

I walked passed the small patch of green through the other door.

The fall site. My golden bed of flowers. I walked over to the edge of the bed, and fell to my knees. The beautiful golden buttercups were in full bloom, and as bright as when I first fell. I almost started to cry, thinking about all that'd happened from the start to now. I had ruined everyone's lives bringing them to the surface. It wasn't fair for them to suffer for my poor decisions.

I started to cry softly, just to let it out. It felt good feeling the tears stream down my face. I wiped my face on the sleeve of my sweater, and looked up. "RESET" was hovering right in front of me. I reached my hand out to press it. I hesitated.

I told Sans that there would be no RESETS. I couldn't break my promise, but...

"Hey"

I whirled my head around, and found no one there.

"Dummy"

I looked down and saw Flowey, shrivelled and wilted. He looked like a dead plant at that point; his face so wrinkly and misshapen.

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. I turned and sprinted down the corridors. I ran until I found the first Froggit room, and kneeled at the stream. I searched through my pockets for something to use as a cup. I had an empty... ketchup bottle.

"Ive been living with Sans for too long" I mumbled to myself.

I filled the bottle with as much water as it would hols, and ran back to the flower bed. Flower was still there. He looked the exact same as before.

"Whats with the hurry, partner?" He asked sarcastically.

I poured the water around the base of his shrivelled stem, careful so I wouldn't wet his petals. After I finished watering him, the soil around him was spongey and damp. Flowey started looking a little better, too.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"What da you think Bucko?! I got my butt kicked." He answered, sarcastically. Again.

I laughed a little at this, and he just rolled his eyes.

"Why are you even here?" He asked.

"I dunno. I needed something to do, I guess."

Flowey stood up a little better, and took a glance around. "Ya know that there's lots of people who visit here. The goat lady, the stupid skeleton, ya know. Its weird." He said, bored.

"Oh really?" I asked, slightly mocking his sarcasm.

"Yeah. They're looking for something. It's here, ya know?" Flowey said lying back down again.

"Oh really?" I replied, sitting down cross-legged.

"I bet you'd find it." He said.

"Uh hu." I replied.

I stood up, and sat down beside Flowey. I knew Chara said he's still bad, but he couldn't hurt me while he was weak like this. I sighed and lied down in the flowers, and felt something poke me in the back. I sat up and looked down at where I just was. It was a thick journal, and a bell. I turned to look at Flowey.

"There's more." He said, again, sarcastic.

I looked round in the flower bed and found a half buried lab coat, a nightlight, a rusted swiss army knife, a rifle shell, a black fountain pen, and a wilted flower crown. I spread all of the stuff in front of Flowey.

"What are these?" I asked, kind of unnerved.

"Flower sat up again and said, "If you can make it through the war, these will be the things that save you. Now leave me alone."

"Im not going to leave." I answered, a little childish.

"Wheyey nooooottttttt?" Flowey complained.

"Because I need to help you out first." I replied.

I wasn't going to leave Flowey to die in a shrivelled mess in the ruins. I had too much sympathy for Asriel to let him die, even if he was a jerk.

Flowey grumped, and flopped down onto the ground. "Let me die, Frisk!"

Well that settled it. *You were filled with DETERMINATION* I grabbed a stick from out of the flower bed, and ripped a strip off my shirt.

"What are you planning to do with that?" He asked

I pushed the stick into the ground by his stem, forced him to send up straight, and tied him to the branch.

"What aRE YOU DOING?!" Flowey started to shout.

"Im making you live." I answered frankly.

After that Flowey started to yell at me and curse my name. I walked back to the stream and poured Flowey another ketchup-water. The ground started to turn to mud, but I figured it was good for him. After I was satisfied with my work, I grabbed the lost stuff, and left him, still yelling and screaming for revenge.


	22. Chapter 22

Frisk woke up on the couch.

Sans's room was locked when I came home from the Ruins. I knocked on the door, but he didn't answer. I was so exhausted from the walk that I didn't bother trying to get him to talk to me, so I stumbled down the stairs and passed out on the couch.

Today I had plans with Undyne. She called on my way back, and told me she had a surprise for today's practice. About a week ago she had a "surprise" and it ended with me almost being killed. I sighed and got up off my butt.

I walked to the bathroom and started a hot shower. I took off my clothes and washed my face. As I looked in the mirror, I almost didn't recognize myself. My hair was longer, passed my armpits,my face was covered in scars, and my arms were strong and tan. I looked away and got into the shower.

After I was done, I pulled on my clothes from yesterday, and headed out. I walked into the kitchen and bumped into Papyrus. He was making spaghetti pancakes {Ew.} and pouring milk into a glass.

"Good morning, Papyrus." I greeted him.

"OH, HELLO HUMAN! WOULD YOU LIKE A PANCAKE? I MADE THEM FRESH THIS MORNING! AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THINKS THAT THESE ARE MY BEST SPAGHETTI-PANCAKES YET!" Papyrus almost scared me out of my skin.

"Sure, Pap. But make it quick. I have practice with Undyne today." I answered.

Papyrus served me a plate of spaghetti-pancakes and milk. I choked as much as I could down and scraped the rest of my plate in the garbage. I would have put it in the sink, but I wasn't tall enough.

"SO," Papyrus started.

I looked over at him. He was sitting at the table, rubbing the back of his head in anxiety. Geez, more bad news.

"Yes, Papyrus?" I asked cooly, returning to my task.

"WELL, I GOT A LETTER FROM THE QUEEN." Papyrus was trying to drag this out. I was mildly annoyed, but I still loved Papyrus, and reminded myself to be patient.

"A letter?" I asked, curiously. I was also trying to hide the fact that this was infuriating me.

"WELL, YES. AND THE QUEEN SAID THAT I HAVETAGDISEHBFKSB." Papyrus mumbled out.

"I didn't catch that last part." I turned to Papyrus and waited for him to finish what he was telling me. God. This was going to take all day at this rate.

"SHE SAID THAT KJHSVGKUDJHRBG." Papyrus mumbled out, again.

"What is it, Papyrus?" I asked, a little more firmly.

"SHE TOLD ME THAT WE HAVE TO WATCH YOU AT ALL TIMES AND THAT YOU WEREN'T ALLOUD TO COME BACK TO THE CASTLE." Papyrus's words scrambled out of his mouth as if they were afraid to be uttered.

I looked at Papyrus for a solid minute, hoping he would say that Sans put him up to a prank. But, he didn't. It felt like all of my DETERMINATION melted out of me, and left me empty. This had to be a mistake. This HAD to be a mistake. I slipped on my boots and sprinted out the door, hoping to leave reality behind me.

I ran, and ran, and ran until my lungs were burning. I couldn't believe that my Mom, and my own King couldn't protect me from the humans. They were so scared that they'd rather cut me off then let me put my own skills to the test. I was running so hard that I almost ran past Undyne's. I slowed to a walk and slipped through the camouflage.

I closed the door behind me and turned around. Undyne wasn't outside. *Sigghhhhhhh* "She's going to jump me, isn't she." I thought to myself. I walked up to the door. Still no surprise. I knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Said Undyne on the other side.

I walked in. All the lights were turned off.

"Hello-"

"SUPRISE!"

Suddenly the lights turned on revealing Alphys, Undyne, Nastablook, and Mettaton with pink party hots on, and balloons everywhere.

"Woah! Whats going on here?!" I asked with a mixture of surprise and delight.

"Its you down day!" Shouted an excited alphas.

"Yeah. Its the day you almost died when you fell into a pit." Undyne said with amused sarcasm.

"HELLO my darling! Isn't it delightful to see me again?" Mettaton was in his EX form. It suited them nicely for the occasion.

"Nice to see you too, Mettaton." I replied.

The floor was covered in a thick layer of balloons in assorted sizes and colours, there were blue, green, and red streamers hanging from the ceiling, and to top it all off, there was a huge purple "Down Day" cake in the centre of the table. I was absolutely beside myself with joy. I had never had any sort of birthday before, but I imagined it was similar to my down day.

"Well, Frisk. Now that everyone has said Hi, I think you should open your present."

int the corner of the room there was a rectangular, red present. I ran over, tore off the wrapping paper, and stared at my present.

It was a black leather belt, with a three foot long silver sword in a scabbard attached to the belt.

"WOW! I can't believe-" I started.

"Yeah, I know. Pretty awesome present, right?"

I spent the entire day playing puzzles, watching anime, drinking tea, watching Mettaton practice his stand up, eating cake, and a whole lot of other fun stuff. It was seven o'clock when I finally started to head home. My belly was full with purple cake, and tea.

I got home before any of the night watchmen were at their posts. I walked through the from door and kicked off my boots. The lights were off.

"Huh" I thought to myself. "weird."

I turned the lights on and headed to my room. Thankfully, Sans had unlocked it. I changed into my pyjamas and started to look around for Sans and Papyrus.

Papyrus wasn't in the kitchen, or his room. Sans wasn't anywhere to be found either. I decided to call Papyrus on my cell.

*Ring* Ring* *Ri- The receiver picked up.

"HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS SPEAKING! WHO IS THIS?" Asked Papyrus.

"Hey Pap! Its Frisk." I answered.

"WHY HELLO FRISK! HOW CAN I HELP YOU?"

"Well, I just wanted to know where you guys are! I couldn't fid you and I started to get worried." I replied.

"WELL I AM FINE, AS YOU CAN TELL BY MY VOICE, BUT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THAT LAZY BROTHER OF MINE IS."

"Oh."

"YES. WELL, HE'S PROBABLY AT GRILBYS ANYWAY. IM AT THE GROCERY STORE RIGHT NOW, SO ILL BE BACK IN A BIT."

"Okay. See you later Pap." I hung up.

I slipped on my boots and headed towards Grilbys. The curfew was in twenty minutes, so I figured I should get Sans.

I walked into the restaurant. Grilby was at the counter, drying a glass, and Sans was at the counter, passed out. I walked up to the bar counter and sat in the seat beside Sans. I turned to Grilby .

"Hey." Trilby walked over to me and put the glass on the counter.

"So, how long has he been passed out?" I nodded towards Sans in emphasis.

"He's been out for around an hour. He's made me promise not to tell Papyrus when he gets like this, so I've just let him be."

The statement reminded me of when I was living on the underground streets. Every once in a while, Grilby would slip me a bite to eat and let me sleep on the floor behind the counter. I was never in a good place when I had to spend the night.

"Is, Is he alright?" I asked Grilby, concerned.

"I don't know, Frisk. He ordered a couple of drinks that I had picked up in the human world. The stuff is strong, and knocks you out cold." Grilby replied, while leaning over the counter.

"Can I see the bottle, please?"

Grilby passed me the bottle. It read: **Reyka. Small batch Vodka. Brewed in the North West.**

God. This was the stuff that my brothers would drink when mother was out. Nasty stuff.

"Okay." I took a deep breath and looked at Grilby with the sternest look I could muster. "Never serve sans this again." I put fifty gold down onto the table and continued. "That should cover what he drank and a portion of his tab. Im going to take him home."

Grilby looked at me with a concerned look, the look he used to give me when I needed to stay the night.

"Can you get him there before curfew? I can help you out." He offered

I liked Grilby. He was there for me when no one else was, but I couldn't help feeling that this was a problem I had to sort out on my own.

"No thanks, Gril. I think I can get him through the tunnel and carry him the rest of the way."

I looked up at Grilby, with a "sorry for this bugger" look. He sighed."

"Can I at least hold the door open for you?" He asked.

"Sure" I smiled.

After I got Sans through the door and onto the couch it was seven thirty-five. I was lucky I didn't have to explain what happened to any of the guards. I closed the door and slumped down onto the floor.

"ooooowwwwwwwwwww." Even with the training from Undyne, Sans was still heavy to carry.

I rubbled my arms for a few seconds, then headed to the bathroom. I filled the tub with the coldest water it would give, then carried Sans up to the bathroom, and dropped him in. He woke up instantly, kicking and cursing.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH WHAT THE FUCK?! AHHHHHHHH MOTHER FUCKER" He cried out.

"SHUT UP YOU LAZY BONES!" I yelled at him.

I pushed Sans down so he was sitting in the tub. He had calmed down, and stopped swearing. He looked humiliated to be sitting in a half frozen bath, drunk, with me staring at him. I didn't feel bad at all.

"What were you thinking?" I said calmly.

I was shaking my head with my had touching my forehead. I was trying my hardest not to cry. I looked up at him. He was shivering, soaked with clear water, and his skull a shade of bright blue. He averted his eyes. I sighed.

I grabbed a towel, and a set of Sans' clothes from the bedroom, and walked into the bathroom. Sans was still sitting in the tub.

"Here" I threw the bundle onto the floor. Sans looked up at me. He sounded like he was going to say something, but I cut him off. "Save it. Get out and get dressed."

I closed the door behind me and walked into the bedroom. I tidied the socks so they were in a neat pile, threw out the paper balls, made my bed, made Sans' bed with new sheets, and moved the treadmill against the wall. After I was done I sat on my bed and waited.

A few minutes later sans walked in. He was swaying from side to side, and his clothes looked wrinkled. I stood up and guided him over to his own bed.

When he sat down, he leaned forward and steadied himself by placing his hand at either side of the bed beside him. He looked up at me. I couldn't read his facial expression.

"What's wrong, Sans?" I asked. I was half surprised. I sounded like I had when I first fell into the Underworld. Sans noticed it too.

"heh. funny. i've heard you say that before." He stated nonchalantly.

"What?" I had never said that before in this timeline.

"It was a neutral run. You probably don't remember." He stated.

"Sans, that stuff is no joke. You could've gotten yourself hurt." I said, hurt.

"No body would care anyway. This is the only time you've talked to me since the war started, and you're mad." He replied.

"Im not mad Sans, Im hurt." I corrected.

"Why would you be hurt? I didn't do anything."

"Im hurt because you're acting like my other brothers." I retorted.

Sans looked up at me, then turned and played on his side facing away from me.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said.

"Well too bad. You don't get to decide what's good for you if you can't do it without getting yourself hurt. I care about you, Sans. Who was the one who carried you home? Who was the one who told you all about the human world? Who's been helping you with your nightmares for weeks now? Huh?! You don't GET to ignore me. Im not done wth you." I retorted, angrily.

"Ya kNOW WHAT, KID! MAYBE YOU'RE THE REASON WHY IM LIKE THIS IN THE FIRST PLACE! I NEVER ASKED TO BE RESET, BUT YOU DID IT ANYWAY. IVE HAD TO WATCH PAPYRUS DIE COUNTLESS TIMES! AND IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Sans looked like he was going to continue, but I cut him off. I was too Hurt not to reply to that.

"YOU ARE TRYNG TO HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE FOR SOMETHING THAT I CANT EVEN REMEMBER! IVE DONE MY BEST TO MAKE EVERYTHING RIGHT! IVE DONE EVERYTHING IN MY POWER TO BE FORGIVEN, AND I THOUGHT I WAS! BUT I GUESS NOT. THIS ISNT EVEN THE REASON WHY YOU'RE ANGRY ANYWAYS! THERES ALWAYS SOMETHING THE MATTER, BUT YOU JUST SHUT PEOPLE OUT! I- I - i- i can't help being like this. I can't help anything anymore." I promptly started to cry after that.

Sans turned around with his left eye blaring blue, but when he saw me, it dimmed to nothing. I fell to my knees and started to cry into my hands. I felt helpless, and dumb.

Sans dropped onto the floor in front me, and pulled me into a hug. I cried into his shoulder for a while, and let my tears soak his shirt.

"I- Im sorry. I didn't know you cared that much, I didn't-" He sighed.

"Do you really want me to tell you what's wrong?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Well then. You're right. Im not mad about the RESETS. Im upset because- because Im scared. I don't want to loose my home, or the people I love. What's worse is that they're not being killed by you, or Chara, or whatever. They're being killed so they can be used by people. We're going to loose."

I looked up. I knew that this reason, though probable, was a lie too. I sighed. I stood up, my back facing away from Sans.

"When you're ready to stop lying to me, you can give me a call."

With that I pulled on my sweater and a pair of jeans. I dropped on my cape, buckled up my sword belt, pulled on my boots, and headed out into the night.


	23. Chapter 23

Frisk ran out in the dark.

I was running and crying hysterically at the same time. Quite the combination if you asked me. My chest was heaving from exhaustion, but I was also grasping for air in-between my cries. I was astounded that the night guard hadn't caught me.

I was running in the direction of the RUINS. Before I realized how close I was to the entrance, I ran straight into the door, and knocked myself out.

I woke up a couple of minutes later with a huge headache, but little damage. I stood up. I almost fell over, but I managed to steady myself on the door. I went inside and headed out of the long basement corridors and found myself in the living room by the fireplace. I almost wished I'd stayed with mom in the ruins longer. I headed to the kitchen and took the watering can out from under the sink and started to walk down to visit Flowey.

On my way there I filled the watering can and started humming a familiar tune that I couldn't quite place. As Flowey's sun patch came into view I saw he was toppled over again. I sighed and walked up.

"Hey, Flowey." I greeted

"What are you doing' here, Frisk?" He growled at me.

Flowey was facing the opposite direction of me. I sighed and propped Flowey up against the stick I tied him to last time, and began to re-tie him.

"Why won't you let me DIE Frisk?" Flowey yelled at me.

"Because you are my friend." I replied, sadly.

Flowey gave me a quick sneer and turned away from me. I finished tying him and went to get the watering can I left a few steps away. As I came Back flower had turned around and was looking at the ground, as if he was ashamed.

"What is it, Flowey?" I asked begrudgingly, expecting a sarcastic remark.

I began to water him, being careful not to get any moisture on his pedals.

"Does Mom remember me?"

I was taken back by his question. It shocked me so much I stopped watering for a second, then continued.

"Of course she does. She remembers all of the kids. Every last one, actually. She never talked much about you, though." I replied truthfully.

When we were living together she would often tell me stories of the other kids that fell down. They all had their little perks and quirks, and she loved them all dearly. I remember, once, I had asked her if she had kids of her own. She gazed off, as if she was remembering something painful and replied, "Yes. Once." I never brought it up again.

"I knew she'd forgotten. Who would want a kid like me?" Flowey grumbled.

I put down the half empty watering can and sat in front of him.

"You know, she loved you a lot." I replied.

"PPPPHHHHHTTTTT as if!" Flowey retorted.

I sighed and sat in silence for a few moments thinking of what to say next.

"Sometimes people don't like to talk about stuff because its too painful, but often times the people they try to hide it from are the people who have to know so they can make things better." I said.

"But what if they can't make it better, huh?" Flowey spat.

"Then they aren't the ones who are supposed to help."

Flowey looked like he was thinking for a long time. He squinted at the ground, and huffed at the air until he finally said, "Are you suppose to be helping me feel better?" He asked. His tone said that he didn't need an answer, he thought the answer was no.

I knew what my answer was the moment he asked, "If I'm not already, why would you ask that question."

Flowey was taken back, and left completely speechless. He huffed and turned his "back" towards me.

"Fine." I said plainly. "When you're ready to be helped, give me a shout."

I walked off towards Toriel's.

I walked through the front door and took off my boots. If Sans was willing to find me he would do it on his own time. I started a fire in the fire place, made myself some spaghetti from the stuff lying in the cupboards, made my bed, and went to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would bring some answers, and some news.


	24. Chapter 23 Prt2

Frisk woke up in a dusty house.

I got up the next day and decided to tidy the house. I took out the cleaning supplies from underneath the kitchen sink and started to work. By the time noon rolled around I had already dusted the entire house, washed the floors, scrubbed the walls, made the beds, shook out the carpets, and watered the flowers. Toriel would be disappointed if they had died next time she visited.

I collapsed into the reading chair in exhaustion.

"PAPYRUS! CAN You..." I called out.

I remembered that I had left Papyrus behind. Oh, how he would be worried! I didn't tell him where I was going and I sure as hell know that Sans didn't tell hi that I ran out so... I sighed. Nothing I could do about it.

I walked down to the spiders and bought a cake, and walked back to the house. I couldn't go out to buy anything to make, so I would ave to make do with spaghetti and cakes.

After reading some of Toriel's books from off the shelves I decided to do a bit of training. I went to the bush outside and practiced.

Thust! wait for their attack. Take out the knees! Thrust! and so on.

After I'd finished, I went inside for a glass of water. As I was filling the cup, I heard a knock at the back door. II put down the glass and went downstairs to answer it. Another knock came from the other side of the door by the time I'd arrived there.

"Who is it?" I asked firmly.

"Its me." It was Sans. "Papyrus is real worried about you. You'd better come home." He added.

I thought about my response for a second before answering.

"Is there anything else?" I asked annoyed.

"Yup. If you don't come out on your own, Im gonna drag you back."

And with that the doors glowed a dark blue, and burst oped. Luckily they opened out into the cold, and not straight at my face. I had just enough time to pull out my sword and prepare for an attack.

Sans stared right at me with a fiery rage. His eye was glowing a violent dark blue and his Ghaster blaster were even at the ready. I gasped. I couldn't believe that Sans came out with the full intention to attack me. We both looked at each other in rage. Sans looked twice as angry as I was, but he staggered for a moment.

Sans had laid eyes on my drawn sword. His face started to change from anger, to terror. I was still angry, so I decided not to notice. We stared at each other in deadlock, waiting for the other to make a move. I changed my stance, and lunged straight for the ghaster blasters.

*SWING*

They were disintegrated in one swipe. Sans started to panic. He tried to pick me up, but it wouldn't take hold. I was running at him at my top speed, I fell to the ground right in front of him, and kicked his legs out from under him. When the snow had cleared, I had me sword right against Sans' chest.

Sans was so terrified he wouldn't move. I looked at him with all of the anger I had been fostering for the past two days, and then started to cry. Sans was confused, to say the least.

In-between my tears I managed to stumble out, "Why- would- you- think I could- do that- to- you?!"

I fell backwards onto my butt and stopped myself from crying as best I could. I was still hiccuping, but it was better. Sans was still lying on the ground. I couldn't see his face.

We sat there for what seemed like hours. Not speaking, and barely daring to breathe.

"I wish you wouldn't had done that." Sans said.

Suddenly I was in the air. He had me levitating in his magic, but I wouldn't fight back. Sans was angry; _VERY_ angry, but I wasn't scared. I was going to deserve whatever happened to me after this point, and I knew it. I only hoped that Sans would be quick, and go all out so I wouldn't have to feel the consequences later.

"WHY AEN'T YOU FIGHTING BACK?!" he screamed.

I only shrugged in response.

In a complete overwhelming rage, Sans threw me into a tree. I blacked out, but I can only imagine that it must've been bad. When I woke up I was covered in cuts and pine needles. I wasn't out for very long, because Sans was running towards me, probably for his next attack. I tensed as he approached, but he didn't do any of what I'd expected.

"What have I done." He whispered.

Sans dropped to his knees and picked me up into his arms. It was incredibly painful. I looked up at him. He looked panicked, scared, and sad.

"Im sorry" I managed to say in a hushed whisper.

Everything went black.


	25. Chapter 24

Frisk woke up in Alphys' lab.

When I came to, I was lying on one of the beds that were used for the amalgamates in the true lab. I leaned forward, and tried to sit up only to be greeted with a huge wave of nausea. I flopped back onto the bed.

The lights were out, and it was cold underneath my thin blanket. I listened carefully for any sign of people, but I couldn't hear anything. I looked to the foot of my bed. No one was sitting at my bedside, but it looked like someone had pulled up a chair to sit beside me.

I took a deep breath and carefully lifted myself off of the bed top, and sat myself upright against the metal bed board. I took a better look around.

The amalgamate room hade been greatly expanded. It looked like there had to be at least two-hundred beds, and a couple of tables scattered throughout the room. There were beds upon beds of monsters sleeping next to me. Rows of people were bleeding through bandages. Wheezing children sat beside injured mothers, Nurses were sweeping dust into urns, soldiers were stuck in their armour, and glittering vials of liquid determination were sitting on empty beds. No one was making any noise, but I could feel their pain. The silent suffering of the wounded, and the grieving of the kids and family. I could hardly bear to see what had happened to all of the people that I was supposed to protect.

I started to feel their eyes drift upon me. What a lame excuse of a princess I was. I didn't even know that any of them were here! Let alone that this many were injured. Here I was. Knocked out because of a mere domestic fight. I suppose I knew what I was getting into, but that didn't make it appropriate or necessary. I felt awful. So many monsters...

"So this is what happened." I whispered.

I reached up to scratch my head, and nearly screamed out in pain when I grazed it. I guess I was hit pretty hard. I could feel a huge bump that spread from behind my right ear to back of my skull. I had to use every ounce of determination not to scream out in pain.

A moan echoed out from somewhere in the room.

I took another look at the monsters around me. They risked their lives trying to save the Monster race, and here I was bellyaching about a bruised head.

"This won't do." I thought to myself

*This fills you with DETERMINATION.*

I fully sat up in my bed. I managed to control my nausea, and slid my legs off the side of my bed and stood up. I swooned to the side, but caught my balance before falling over. I leaned against my bed board and waited to regain the nerve to try again. I stood up, and started to walk little, slow steps.

I spotted a nurses station and started to make my way over passing row upon row of the injured and dying. I arrived at the Nurse's table near the entrance of the west hallway. There wasn't anyone there, but there were half a dozen small medical bags lined in a row on top of the desk. I picked one up and examined it carefully. There were vials of determination, bandages, gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a bottle of pain killers. I thought it was strange to see so many vials of determination after the failed experiments, but I suppose Alphys had found a way to make it usable in first aid.

"I hope she isn't going on a whim." I thought to myself.

I took the medical bag and walked down the west hallway a little. There was a water fountain with canteens hung up along the wall. I filled two of the canteens and walked back into the room. i took a sip of the canteen. I felt much better after a drink, so I started to go around to see the patients.

The first monster I saw was a lesser dog. it was in a sorry state. It looked like it had been pierced with a spear. It wagged its tail as best it could. I gave it a pet and motioned for it to sit up. I changed the bandages on its abdomen, ignoring the oozing coming from its wound, and filled its water glass. I did the same to all the patients. I cheered them up a little bit, dressed their wounds, and refiled their water glasses. Everyone was different. The Tems insisted on having a few temflakes, the dogs all wanted a pet or a belly scratch, the Froggits loved soothing compliments, the Knight Knights loved lullabies... It had never occurred to me how many _different_ monsters were out fighting.

I will never forget any of the monsters I saw that day. Not ever.

After I had seen all of the patients I went back to my bed. I had just realized that I was wearing a hospital gown and not my regular clothes, and was hoping to find my regular clothes, or a note telling me where to find them. after looking for a few minutes I found neither, so I went off to look for Alphys.

I look all over the lab and couldn't find her anywhere. Well, I didn't look in the core, and I didn't look in the room they converted into a surgery table. It was too dangerous to go wandering around in those rooms, so I decided to go up the elevator and look for her at her usual lab.

I found her immediately. She was going to use the elevator to go down and see the patients, and I was on my way up to find her and we almost ran into each other. I fell on my butt from the surprise and was laughing. Alphys was taken back for a few moments, but when she realized what had happened she started to frantically fuss over me.

"OH MY GOSH! Im so sorry, Frisk! I didn't mean to- Oh I'm such a klutz." Alphys said, slightly distressed.

"Hahahaha! Its OK Alphys. I was just looking for you." I laughed.

"Oh, Im sorry I wasn't down sooner. Its just- I- I don't really like being down there." Alphys said slightly ashamed.

"Thats alright. Everyone seems to be okay. I just finished going around giving everyone water." I replied, trying to make her feel better.

"T- Thats good. H- How are your wounds?" Alphys asked.

"Im fine. I was a little dizzy when I first stood up, but I should be okay. Im sorry to worry you." I apologized. I couldn't very well control what Sans did after I blacked out, but I wished he didn't take me to the doctors. I would've been fine on the couch.

"Well you actually sustained serious injuries when you were first brought here. Your entire skull was cracked and half of the bones in your body from the shoulders down had minor fractures. And that's just what happened to your bones. You were luck to have been brought here so quick. I was able to i- inject you with some liquid determination, and you healed almost immediately." Alphys said in a doctor-like tone.

I guess I wouldn't have been fine on the couch.

"Can I have my clothes before we go down? Its kind of cold in the lab." I asked.

"I- Im sorry. Sans took them t- to wash so they'd be clean for when you woke up. He left ab- about half an hour ago." Alphys stated apologetically.

"Thats okay." I replied.

Alphys pushed the down button, and the elevator doors closed.

"Whats with all the liquid determination? I thought it didn't work on monsters." I asked, curiously.

"W- Well, when we were on the surface I took some books about what y- you humans call "Modern Medicine" an- and some books on "Herbal Remedies" and "Natural Cures". I used the information from the books as a reference and s- started using a medical procedure called "Tolerance." B- Basically we give monsters very small dosages at a time, and slowly increases the dosage as their bodies learn to tolerate it. This process can be done naturally by becoming more determined over time by monsters own will, but we don't h- have time f- for that." Alphys answered

"Thats amazing!" I replied.

"Y-Yeah! Now monsters can be hit dozens of times before... before.." Alphys stated excitedly at first, then stopped short when she realized how horrid her statement was.

"I- Its okay. We have a lot more monsters coming home alive than dead, and thats a good thing." I added, swiftly.

"Yeah." alphas replied.

We were silent for the rest of the ride.

For the next hour or so I helped Alphys dress more wounds, administer determination, feed patients, bring around water, cheered monsters, and even helped perform a surgery on a greater dog. It was a simple operation to remove a bullet from a flesh wound. When we were finished we sat down at the west hall Nurse's station and ate some potato chisps, and talked about the new anime Alphys had brought down from the surface.

Just as we were discussing the likely hood of Princess Chops and Sir Cliddlehorn getting together, Sans walked in. Alphys stopped in the middle of her sentence, and I didn't realize why until I turned to look at what she was staring at.

Sans was staring at the floor, my clothes neatly folded and freshly washed in his hands. His skull was a shade of bright blue, and he swayed from one side of the hall to the other as if he was drunk.

"Sans?" I called out.

"Wha-" Sans looked up quickly, and started to blush a deeper blue when he saw me. He looked back to the floor and marched up to us and placed my clothes on the table.

"I, uh, washed 'em." Sans said, looking away from me.

"Thanks." I said.

I took my clothes and walked into the bathroom to change. He brought my sweater, a blue shirt, a pair of jeans, underwear, and my... oh god. He brought me my bra. *SIGHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh* Oh well. I put everything on, and looked in the small bathroom mirror. There was a green patch the size of my fist on the left side of my sweater. The bright green wasn't even the same holly material as my sweater was, and I wasn't even wearing it when we fought. Oh well. I collected myself and headed back out.

Sans was whispering with Alphys, and wen I got close enough for them to see me the ceased their conversation.

"So, uhhh. Im guessing you'd like to go home." Sans said.

"Yeah. Im starting to miss Papyrus." I replied honestly.

Sans looked at me. I couldn't tell what his expression was. Regret? Anger? Disappointment? Shame? I couldn't tell.

He started down the hallway without saying another word. When we got outside he led me through a shortcut and we were back home in no time. We didn't utter a word to each other the whole way there.

When we got home Papyrus was so happy to see me. We cooked extra fancy spaghetti, made a terrible sauce, watched one of Mettaton's programs, and solved a few puzzles. I fell asleep on the couch halfway through a word search, and Papyrus carried me to bed. He didn't ask me any questions about where I was, he wasn't even the least bit angry with me for leaving so suddenly. I couldn't help but love Papyrus for his unconditional brotherly love.

I woke up at a round one in the morning. I sat up in bed and looked over to Sans. He was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall looking out the window. I got up and sat next to him. He didn't even glance at me when I sat down. We looked out the window for a seemingly endless amount of time, listening to the wind.

"I don't know what Im going to do with you." He said, not really directed at me.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you, either" I replied.

For some time we just sat, looking at the trees.

"Whats the deal with the sword?" He asked, still looking our the window.

"I didn't want to use a stick." I replied, half joking.

Another pause.

"Im just as dangerous as any other monster." He said.

I didn't reply.

"I didn't realize how dangerous I was... How dangerous I am." He continued.

I hesitated before responding, "I deserved every last blow. No one should ever abandon the people they love."

Sans tensed at the statement.

A few minutes passed.

"Do ya remember when you gave me those flowers? and I said, 'You're pollen my leg, orchid you be serious?' Heh. And then I said, 'You need to be a lily more careful about the thorns.' when you pricked yourself handin' them to me?" Sans asked.

"Yeah." I replied.

Another pause

"Why did things have to get so complicated between us? " Sans asked, rhetorically. I answered anyway.

"Because things had never _NOT_ been complicated." I replied.

After that we didn't talk anymore, and I eventually fell asleep on Sans' shoulder.

One thought echoed in my brain like a firework that night. Never fading, but persistent like a headache.

"Its never complicated when I'm with you."


	26. Chapter 26

Hey guys! I have a bit of a sad announcement.

From now on there will be no more updated on An Aftertale.

I have completely lost interest in the story and the way it was headed, and i find it extremely difficult to get motivated to write new chapters. But, I will tell you how the story was planned to end.

Two chapters after the last one, Frisk made a decision to fight on the front lines. She went out against the will of Toriel and enraged ashore by doing this, but they couldn't do anything to bring her back or to stop her from fighting. On the battle field, Frisk would save monsters who were being overpowered by the humans, treated the injured, and helped with rescue efforts. Cavern, the human mentioned earlier in the story, would go out n the world to spread the word of the true nature of the monsters. A few chapters later, he would come back with an army of about 3000 people who would fight along side the monsters. Thomas was one one of these 3000, and he slowly became the strategist of the entire war. This worked incredibly well, and for a time it even looked like they were going to win the war, but the humans came out with a new super weapon that would suck the soul out of monsters within a 20 mile radius. all hope was lost, until Nastablook entered the scene. Nastablook went straight passed all of the weapons and headed to the human camp, where he plagued them with nightmares and drove them towards insanity. The humans had to stage a retreat. During this three-hour window of time, all of the boss monsters of the underground joined together to forge a new barrier. This new barrier covered all of Mnt. Ebott, and the over half of the surrounding valley and fields. The Barrier was incredibly strong, and wouldn't let any humans in, and no monster out. The 2000 humans who survived were aloud to live the rest of their lives in the barrier, but were aloud to leave if the wished with the knowledge that they would never be able to return. Thomas became the human representative in all government issues and was well respected leader head. Frisk went home. For many chapters after the war she suffered from depression that no one could console her from. During this time her daily visits to Flowey resumed. One chapter, Frisk was visiting Flowey, when Sans showed up. Sans took her to his lab and showed her the machine. It was supposed to be a portal between all of the different time lines, but something went wrong. After that she went home to the brothers' house to sleep. During the night, she pulled out all of the items she found in the Fall Flowers, and took them to the machine with the words of flower till ringing in her head. "If you survive the war, you're going to need these to figure out Sans machine." She took these items, tossed them in, started it up, and headed inside. When she stepped out feeling no different, she found ou that she wasn't in a different timeline, but an alternate universe. Thats where the story would end.


End file.
